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A life before a 30-year sentence

Friends and family say William Thornton isn't perfect, but nothing he has done deserves such a term.

By ABBIE VANSICKLE
Published October 17, 2005

	[Times photos: Stephen J. Coddington]
	Lola Thornton, right, is comforted by her son's ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Freeman, while talking about the 30-year prison sentence he received in connection to a traffic accident that killed two people. Freeman remains friends with William Thornton, 18, and she spoke on his behalf at his sentencing.
	Lola Thornton looks through her son's bedroom on Wednesday. William ran track, worked part-time, and wanted to be a mechanic. Read Saturday's editorial

WILDWOOD - William Thornton's mother, Lola, walks into her son's room, glancing at the relics of a time before the tragedy.

She fetches his art class sketchbook.

On one sheet, puzzle pieces glued on a blue background form an abstract image. Drizzles of white paint cover the pieces.

"This is my life, scattered and out of my reach," he had written. "It is impossible to puzzle it back together."

She waves her hand, as if to swat away the uncomfortable words. It's nothing, just a teen's ramblings, she says.

But the words are tough to ignore.

Her son just turned 18. He killed Brandon Mushlit, 25, and Sara Jo Williams, 23, in a traffic accident in December. For their deaths, he got 30 years in prison, the maximum. He had no prior record. State corrections and juvenile justice officials had recommended juvenile detention or house arrest instead.

The families of those who died call Thornton a remorseless young man of poor character. That's what led him to take off in his girlfriend's car one night to go meet another woman, they say. They say he's a young man whose path was leading straight to where his father's did: prison.

But those who know him well - his mother, his high school track coach, his ex-girlfriend - tell a story of an artistic, reserved young man dealing with the typical pains of teenage years.

He was a boy who worked part time as he was finishing up high school. He wanted to be a mechanic.

Repeated requests for an interview with William Thornton were not answered by Citrus County jail employees.

But his parents, Lola and Michael Thornton, wanted to tell their stories.

"I'm not going to stand up here and paint my son as a shining star. Come on," said Lola Thornton, 47. "Kids are out there doing things we don't teach them to do. Let's be realistic."

The victims' families have said William Thornton didn't seem sorry at the sentencing. That's not true, Lola Thornton says.

"I know my son, and I know how he reacted," she says.

William Thornton's father, Michael Thornton, 48, says he was determined that his son wouldn't fulfill the stereotype of young, poor, black men.

"My son was not going to be a statistic," he said recently in an interview at the Citrus County jail, where he faces his own 30-year sentence. "If he was, he was going to be a positive one."

That's why the Thorntons were so pleased when their son placed second and third in two countywide spelling bees. They supported him when he ran track. They took him to church services several times a week at Jesus Is! Ministries Inc. in Inglis.

His track coach called a reporter after seeing a story about the case. Could this be the same boy he coached in the 400 meters and occasionally gave rides home after practice? he asked.

"Just to read this in the paper was like "no way,"' said Dan Epstein, a track coach at Lecanto High School. "I was trying to figure out if it was the William Thornton that we had. I've never known him to get in trouble. He really wanted to do something with his life."

The folks at the Inglis ministry had a hard time believing it, too.

Jesus Is! is a rehabilitation center on Daisy Street, just east of the only stoplight in town.

Michael Thornton entered the center's 90-day treatment program in December 1996. He never really left, taking on a staff role. He, his wife and young son moved from Orlando to Beverly Hills to be closer.

Ministry founder Gloria Adams, 68, remembered the first time the family came to the facility.

"When they came in here, the family was in a bit of disarray," Adams said.

But now, the Thorntons are highly respected in the community. Lola Thornton calls Adams "Mom," and Adams says William Thornton treats her "like a grandmother."

"To me, they'd be the type of parents you'd want to see," she said. The Thorntons came to services two to three times a week. They donated sod and fertilizer to the ministry. They set up a telephone prayer line.

A 30-year sentence for William Thornton is a travesty, said ministry staffer Glenda Wehry. "You want to waste the dollars of the taxpayers of Florida?" she asked. "Sure, lock him up for 30 years."

People at the ministry contrast William Thornton's sentence to other recent criminal cases. In September, John and Linda Dollar each got 15 years for torturing their adopted children. In Pasco County, Kristina Gaime, who was accused of killing her 6-year-old son and trying to kill his 8-year-old brother, agreed to a 20-year prison sentence.

Thornton could serve more time than any of the three.

William Thornton's father understands what a 30-year sentence feels like.

In 2003, Michael Thornton was accused of stealing jewelry, charms, bracelets and gold coins from a local psychiatrist. He had had other arrests in Orlando, years before. He opted for a bench trial. Circuit Judge Ric Howard was his judge, too. Howard sentenced him to 30 years, too.

After Michael Thornton's incarceration, Lola and William moved in with Lola Thornton's mother, Ada Mae Massey. William got a part-time job at the Wildwood truck stop.

"I kind of knew (trouble) was coming," Michael Thornton said recently.

When his son came to the jail after sentencing, the two shared a cell.

"When he came into the cell, I didn't want to be too hard on him," Michael Thornton said.

He said he told his son that if he had stayed home, as he was supposed to, none of this would have happened. He shouldn't have spent so much time on women.

At the time of the accident, Stephanie Freeman was Thornton's girlfriend. She was pregnant with their child.

When they first met working at McDonald's, she didn't think much of him. She was his boss.

"Basically, I had to get up in his face just to get him to do something," she said. "You didn't know he was there unless you bumped into him."

Eventually, something sparked between them. They watched 2 Fast 2 Furious together. They double-dated at Wal-Mart. They tried to go to Busch Gardens but didn't have the money. They spent the night driving around Tampa instead.

"I love being around him," Freeman says. "People saw how happy he made me."

That afternoon of the accident, he had gone with her to her job at McDonald's. He asked to borrow her car, a burgundy Dodge Stratus, and told her he wanted to go home for a nap. He lied.

Instead, he took the car to Citrus County, where he met another woman, Sarah Davis. He left her a little before midnight, Lola Thornton says, and was trying to get back to Wildwood in time to return the car to Freeman.

It's unclear what the relationship was between Davis and Thornton. Davis did not respond to an interview request.

After Freeman learned of the accident, she got a ride to Tampa General Hospital. She sat by her boyfriend's hospital bed, hoping he would be all right. She was still wearing her McDonald's uniform when Lola Thornton arrived about a day later.

When Freeman found out about Davis, she says, she "just let it go."

"He was happy with (Davis)," she said. She had a miscarriage shortly after the accident, and she and William remain friends.

At William's sentencing, Freeman spoke on his behalf, begging the judge for mercy. Davis attended the hearing with her mother, but she did not speak.

"Thirty years is for murdering someone point-blank," Freeman said later. "Not for a car accident. He hasn't even lived."

She watched him apologize in court and later heard the victims' families say how upset they were about the apology. Thornton did the best he could, Freeman says.

"William didn't do a lot of talking, especially when he gets upset," she said.

Freeman said she cringed when she heard the judge mention Michael Thornton's case at the William's sentencing. Some of her relatives are in prison, too, she said, but that doesn't mean she would deserve the maximum time.

A few days later, Lola Thornton and Freeman were watching TV together when a story about another sentencing came on the television.

The penalty was less than William's. Lola Thornton shook her head, looking defiant and disgusted. A few seconds later, she was crying. Freeman slid onto the chair beside Thornton, her arm around her protectively. No one moved for several minutes as she sobbed.

Lola Thornton got up, looking for family photo albums to show her son's baby pictures. She stood in the corner, thumbing through the pictures, stopping to remember.

In one photo he's an adorable toddler. In another, his hair is uncombed, his smile broad. She wiped her eyes, thinking of the past when the family was together.

She said she doesn't know what to expect from her son's hearing on Nov. 8; it's on a motion to withdraw his plea. The public defender hasn't talked much about it, she said.

Her husband is optimistic.

"It isn't going to stick, no way," Michael Thornton said. "You can't give a kid 30 years for an accident."

If his son does serve 30 years, Michael Thornton said, he can't imagine what sort of person he'll be at the end. The judge is creating "little sticks of dynamite," he said, by putting young people in jail for so long for accidents. By the time they get out, they'll be so full of anger and resentment that they'll explode with rage and commit more crimes, he said.

His wife hopes the judge will allow her son a chance to present a defense. But who knows? She never thought her son would get 30 years, and she says she doesn't know much about the law.

In her home hangs a large painting on velvet. It's a silhouette of a black child, a single tear dripping down the face. The family bought it long ago because of the Bible verse that inspired it. The passage is Revelation 21:4: "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

Back then, the Thorntons didn't know the tears they would cry for the sins of their son or his punishment.

"It's almost as if people don't believe something like this can happen," Michael Thornton said. "It just don't add up."

--Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Abbie VanSickle can be reached at 860-7312 or vansickle@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 17, 2005, 01:18:14]