Merc Thomas facebook photo.JPG

Alfred "Merc" Thomas in a screenshot of his Facebook page.

(John O'Brien | jobrien@syracuse.com)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Alfred "Merc" Thomas took to Facebook to make a bold proclamation three weeks after a Syracuse jury acquitted him of murder in 2014.

He did it, Thomas admitted.

Four months later, Thomas went so far as to make a video of the crime scene and post it on Facebook. In it, he says his convicted co-defendant was innocent.

"I did that. Me and another black male," Thomas said in the video, according to court papers.

When friends warned him to delete the confessions before police took screenshots of them, Thomas showed his legal acuity. He posted a photo of the New York state double jeopardy law, which prohibits someone from being prosecuted twice for the same crime.

"(N-word), I beat this!" Thomas wrote on Facebook, according to court papers. "SO GET OFF MY (expletive). I DID DAT."

The FBI and federal prosecutors took notice. They got a search warrant for Thomas' Facebook account and used the posts against him on a pending charge of being a felon in possession of ammunition in 2012.

Thomas' profile picture on Facebook

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Southwick told a judge in March that the admissions to murder are evidence that Thomas is a danger to the community.

"Believing that his acquittal in state court shielded him from any further prosecution, the defendant now tells the world, 'Yes, I did it,'" Southwick said in court in March, according to a transcript.

Southwick told U.S. Magistrate Judge David Peebles that he was not offering the Facebook posts as proof that Thomas was legally responsible for Martin Paulk's murder. The prosecutor acknowledged Thomas "may well be right" that he can't be charged with Paulk's murder again.

Thomas' lawyer, George Hildebrandt, said in court that the Facebook posts were just bravado. No one would actually confess to a crime he was acquitted of, unless he "put a lot of stock in movies like 'Witness for the Prosecution' or 'Double Jeopardy,'" Hildebrandt said.



Peebles granted Southwick's request to keep Thomas in jail pending the federal charges. The judge cited Thomas' admissions on Facebook as the most convincing evidence that he would present a danger if he were set free.

Thomas, 31, of Rome, is scheduled to go to trial in January.

Hildebrandt said this week that Thomas likely made the Facebook comments in an attempt to help his co-defendant, George "Cito" Colon.

A jury convicted Colon of murder Sept. 3, 2014, in the fatal shooting of Paulk eight months earlier on the city's North Side. As he lay dying, Paulk told police that "Cito" had shot him.

A witness saw two men shoot Paulk to death, but the jury acquitted Thomas.

A month after the verdict, Thomas wrote on Facebook again in response to a story on Syracuse.com about Colon's sentencing, court papers said.

"Ma work stay makin da news," the post said, according to court papers.

Thomas boasted on Facebook again in July 2015, in response to a Syracuse.com story about 10 people being shot in a violent July 4 weekend: "10 shootins in 1 day n nobody dies, that's how u no I'm not involved."

All the Facebook posts have since been deleted.

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