TULSA, Okla. — A Tulsa family says justice is served after the man accused of killing their loved one was convicted by a federal jury.
Donald Thomas, 36, lost his life in July 2020. A federal jury convicted Thomas’s cousin Kyle Freeman of first-degree murder on Thursday.
“He was the glue to our family,” said Sierra Noldon, Thomas's sister.
Noldon was at her home Monday morning with her mother and husband as they remembered her late brother.
“He was that loving person,” said Noldon. “He was that protector and he wanted to take care of his family and that’s what he’d been doing all his life. That was my big brother.”
Donald Thomas was killed inside his home near the 4500 block of East Admiral Boulevard on July 30, 2020.
“Last day I saw my brother, he was here four hours before he was killed,” Noldon said. “I wish I would’ve hugged him a little tighter, but I know he’s up there watching me.”
Prosecutors say Thomas was trying to calm Freeman down after Freeman was fighting with his girlfriend. They say Freeman felt disrespected and beat Thomas with a water meter key killing him.
“He didn’t deserve to go in that manner,” Noldon said.
Noldon said she’d been waiting for answers as to what exactly happened that day for two years. She said the federal trial provided her with those answers.
“It was just different pieces of the story,” said Noldon. “Every testimony and every witness that came forward.”
The jury deliberated for seven hours on Thursday before reaching a guilty verdict. Freeman was convicted of first-degree murder.
“Now that all of this is over, and I got the story, I feel this now and I can sleep again,” Nolson said.
She says she’s learned several lessons since her brother died; to be strong, keep moving forward, and to raise her tribe the right way.
“It’s the process to start to heal and I know that he’s in heaven and he’s my angel,” Noldon said.
Freeman will be sentenced in federal court in about a year.
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