Murder defendants get life sentences in Lyles' death

By By Suzanne Monk / managing editor
April 6, 2004
The last of three people indicted in the August 2002 murder of Stanley Neil Lyles has pleaded guilty in Lauderdale County Circuit Court.
Eric Michael Thomas pleaded guilty to capital murder Monday before Circuit Judge Robert Bailey and received a life sentence.
A co-defendant also indicted for capital murder, Jonathan Richard Davis, pleaded guilty in late March. He also received a life sentence, with this notation from the judge: "Life means life, no parole, no early release."
Lauderdale County deputies discovered Lyle's body Aug. 23, 2002, in his home on Sneed Road. He had been stabbed to death days earlier and his Ford Explorer was gone.
Three people were indicted in March 2003 in connection with Lyles' death. Davis, then 18, was a Marine at Naval Air Station Meridian. Thomas, then 20, was from Meridian. A Lauderdale County grand jury handed down capital murder indictments against both.
An enlisted woman, 20-year-old Rosemary Rae Para, was indicted as an accessory after the fact of capital murder.
Both Davis and Para received "other than honorable" discharges from the U.S. Navy shortly after they were arrested.
In his petition to plead guilty, Davis said: "On Aug. 19, 2002, Eric Thomas and I broke and entered the residence of Stanley Lyles … with the intent to steal therein. Once inside, we encountered Mr. Lyles and attacked him with knives."
Thomas was on probation for another felony conviction in Lauderdale County when he was charged with capital murder in Lyles' death. Both crimes involved the same victim. Thomas had been convicted of the April 2001 burglary of Lyles' house.
Both Davis and Thomas have been transferred to the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
Para pleaded guilty to the accessory charge in November, asserting that while she did not help commit the alleged murder, she did drive Davis and Thomas to Michigan afterwards. She received a five-year, suspended sentence.