Plea deal results in 3-year prison term in Miller stabbing case
Apr. 1—MOUNT VERNON, Mo. — A 56-year-old defendant pleaded guilty Monday to an evidence tampering charge in the stabbing of two other men a year ago outside a convenience store in Miller.
Thomas C. Lee, of Miller, pleaded guilty in Lawrence County Circuit Court to tampering with physical evidence in a plea deal dismissing the two more serious counts of first-degree assault.
His plea deal called for a three-year prison sentence, and Circuit Judge David Cole assessed Lee the agreed-upon length of sentence.
Lee was accused of stabbing Franklin Holmes and Michael Real in the early morning hours of March 19, 2023, outside the Casey's convenience store in Miller.
A deputy responding to a report of the stabbing located Holmes on the floor of a residence near the store on Route DD with two stab wounds to his side and one to a forearm. Holmes was in and out of consciousness and could not be questioned at the time, according to a probable-cause affidavit. But Real, who was located at the residence with a single stab wound to his ribs, told the deputy that Lee had stabbed them during an altercation near the store's dumpsters.
Lee claimed he was simply defending himself when the two men approached and assaulted him as he was retrieving discarded pizza from the store's trash bins to feed his dogs. Lee showed deputies where he had discarded the knife in a bottle of bleach he tossed in a culvert near his home.
The affidavit states that a doorbell camera on the front porch of the residence where the stabbing victims were showed them watching Lee as he pulled up to the dumpsters. The video footage showed Real ducking behind a corner of the house because he thought it was his wife in the car and did not wish to be seen by her.
Seconds later, the two men are seen walking in the direction of the store, according to the affidavit.
