True Crime Chronicles: Within a year of release on probation, Broken Bow killer took three lives in 2004

Mickey David Thomas

In June 2004, a violent crime spree spanning two states left three women dead and a community reeling.

Mickey David Thomas, then 29 years old, had recently been released from prison after serving nine years for kidnapping and robbery. Within a year of his release, he would commit a series of brutal crimes that culminated in a double homicide in DeQueen.

On June 14, 2004, the bodies of Mona Lee Shelton, 46, and Donna Marie Cary, 45, were discovered at Cornerstone Monument Company, a gravestone business in DeQueen. Both women had been shot execution-style in the head.

Thomas, who initially claimed to have stumbled upon the bodies, was quickly identified as the suspect. He had stolen their purses and fled the scene in a stolen vehicle, leading law enforcement on a chase that ended in Broken Bow.

The murders in Arkansas were not the only crimes attributed to Thomas. Just days earlier, he had committed a home invasion robbery in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, during which Geraldine Jones was killed.

He was also charged with robbery and rape in Durant, where he assaulted a woman at a local business. During the attack, the victim reportedly rebuked him “in the name of Jesus Christ,” a moment that underscored the terror and desperation of the encounter.

Thomas was convicted of capital murder in Arkansas and sentenced to death on September 28, 2005. His appeals, including claims of racial discrimination, were dismissed by the Arkansas Supreme Court in 2007. He remains incarcerated at Varner Supermax in Gould..

The brutality of Thomas’s crimes and the speed with which they unfolded shocked both Arkansas and Oklahoma communities.

His victims--Shelton, Cary, and Jones--were ordinary women caught in the path of extraordinary violence. Their stories, though often overshadowed by the legal proceedings that followed, remain central to understanding the full impact of Thomas’s actions.