Grand jury indicts two for capital murder

By By Suzanne Monk / managing editor
April 15, 2003
A Lauderdale County man and a U.S. Marine have been indicted for capital murder in the Aug. 20 stabbing death of 47-year-old Stanley Neil Lyle.
A Lauderdale County grand jury indicted Eric Michael Thomas, 20, of 401 55th Ave., and Jonathan Richard Davis, 19, who had been stationed at Naval Air Station Meridian, for capital murder and motor vehicle theft.
An enlisted woman, 20-year-old Rosemary Rae Para, was indicted for motor vehicle theft and accessory after the fact of capital murder.
The indictment list was released into the public record Monday, following arraignments on Friday.
Lyle's death was discovered after the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department received a phone call from a Kentucky trooper.
Thomas and Davis had been involved in a one-vehicle accident on Interstate 75 south of Cincinnati. The two men were driving Lyle's 1993 Ford Explorer.
The trooper investigating the accident became suspicious and called Lauderdale County. Deputies went to check on Lyle and discovered his body in his home on Sneed Road, a narrow drive off Old Eighth Street Road.
Lyle had been dead for several days.
Thomas and Davis were extradited from Kentucky in late August, and have been held without bond in the Lauderdale County jail since.
Para also left town after Lyle's death, but was located by U.S. Navy officials and returned to Lauderdale County. She was initially charged with accessory after the fact of burglary, and is still being held at the jail.
The grand jury also issued 23 other indictments for violent crimes: six for armed robbery, one for kidnapping, five for robbery, three for aggravated assault, one for sexual battery, two for statutory rape, three for aggravated domestic violence, one for felony child abuse and one for shooting into a house.