A November 2020 incident is the reason a man diagnosed with schizophrenia was sentenced to five years in federal prison. He threatened an Amtrak conductor with a knife. The mentally ill man also tried to get into the train’s engine compartment.
Timothy I. Thomas, 32, who suffers from schizophrenia will get credit for the approximately year and a half he’s been in custody. In addition, Thomas has two unresolved cases in Dane County that could result in additional time in prison.
Thomas is from Portland, Oregon. He was a passenger on the train in Chicago when he started making odd statements and hitting things. The train went through Wisconsin on Nov. 7, 2020, according to court records. Thomas ended up pleading guilty March 3 to interfering with a railroad conductor with reckless disregard for the safety of human life.
U.S. District Judge William Conley recognized that Thomas was having a “full psychotic episode.” The judge said that his mental state was exacerbated by the use of methamphetamine at the time he committed the crime.
An apology was given by Thomas for his actions in court. He said it was his responsibility to continue taking medication for his mental illness, but that in trying to get into the train operator’s cabin, he was just trying to get his belongings that were still on the train after he’d gotten off.
During sentencing it was told to the court how both Thomas’ parents had mental health problems and that his mother, while apparently having a psychotic break of her own, shot him in the arm when he was 8 and then attempted suicide. He was placed into foster care until he was 16. When taken in to custody, he allegedly groped a sheriff’s deputy and two inmates on March 10. His medication was restarted on March 19, Conley said, but according to court records he attacked two jail deputies on March 29.
The transfers and the regular issues with prison caused Thomas to not have his required medicine. Jail transfers in the state is a cause. Thomas now faces felony battery and misdemeanor fourth-degree sexual assault and disorderly conduct charges for the March incidents in the jail. He’s scheduled to be in court for a status conference on the felony charges on June 14.
