On Tuesday, Tevin Biles-Thomas, a U.S. Army soldier and the brother of Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, was acquitted of triple murder charges after an Ohio judge declared prosecutors did not have sufficient evidence to convict him.
Cuyahoga County Court Judge Joan Synenberg said the description matching Biles-Thomas and the shooting suspect was “75 percent accurate at best” and “is insufficient to sustain a conviction” against Biles-Thomas for the killings of Delvante Johnson, 19, Toshaun Banks, 21, and Devaughn Gibson, 23 on New Year’s Eve 2018. Synenberg dismissed the charges and said “my heart goes out to the families of the victims.”
Synenberg’s decision to drop the charges against Biles-Thomas prompted an outburst from one of the shooting victim’s mothers who rushed Biles-Thomas and said “You have to be fucking kidding me, bitch,” “You all have got me fucked up” and “I’m going to kill you.”
Joseph Patituce, one of Biles-Thomas’ defense attorneys, identified the woman as Johnson’s mother, NBC News reported.
The woman was stopped by bailiffs in the makeshift courtroom and escorted away. As she was taken away, the woman yelled, “He killed my baby. You know he killed my baby.”
Footage from an officer’s body-worn camera showed another angle of the woman charging the court room.
Biles-Thomas, a U.S. Army soldier, was arrested at Fort Gordon, Ga., in the summer of 2019 and charged with six counts of murder, three counts of manslaughter, five counts of felony assault and a count for perjury. He was alleged to have arrived at a 2018 New Year’s Eve party with an uninvited group. The shooting took place after an altercation between the uninvited group and the invited guests.
Biles-Thomas’ connection to Simone Biles, the four-time Olympic gold medalist, has drawn added attention to the 2018 shooting incident and the ensuing court case.
The gymnast did not grow up with Biles-Thomas. She was three years old when she, Biles-Thomas and two other siblings were placed in foster care, separating them from their biological mother’s drug and alcohol abuse.
When she was six, she and her younger sister Adria were adopted by Ron Biles, their maternal grandfather, and his wife Nellie Biles.
In 2019, the Olympian gymnast said she was having a difficult time processing her brother’s charges and “My heart aches for everyone involved, especially for the victims and their families. There is nothing that I can say that will heal anyone’s pain, but I do want to express my sincere condolences to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy. I ask everyone to please respect my family’s privacy as we deal with our pain. XO.”
