Preliminary Hearing Reveals More In The Bowling Green, Kentucky, "Robbery" Killing Of Larry Wayne Thomas By Dominique Leshay Wortham And Adriana Monique Mason.

Police: Intended robbery ended in death

Larry Wayne Thomas

Dominique Leshay Wortham

Adriana Monique Mason

Two people charged with murder had planned to rob the victim just before going inside his apartment, police say.

During a preliminary hearing in Warren District Court today, Bowling Green Police Detective Matt Davis said that – according to Adriana Monique Mason’s statement to police – Dominique Leshay Wortham, 21, and Mason, 19, met at Campus Pointe apartments on Fields Drive on Sept. 2 and discussed robbing Larry Wayne Thomas Jr., 20. Wortham and Mason are both charged with murder in Thomas’ shooting death.

Thomas was shot in the torso at about 11 p.m. Sept. 2 at Greenhaven Apartments, Apt. 8F, on Rock Creek Road. He died the following morning at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

Warren District Judge Sam Potter found probable cause to send the case against Wortham and Mason to a grand jury. They are in Warren County Regional Jail in lieu of $1 million cash bonds.

Davis testified that Mason said Wortham had shown her a large black gun on his right thigh before they left in separate vehicles to go to Greenhaven Apartments, where Thomas lived.

Wortham said he had given Thomas $1,000 for marijuana and that Thomas had not paid him back yet. Wortham and Mason agreed that Mason would preoccupy Thomas while Wortham sneaked into the apartment and took the money Thomas owed him, Davis testified.

Mason told Thomas to get in the shower, then she unlocked the door and texted Wortham to tell him he could come in, according to Davis’ court testimony. Mason got in the shower with Thomas while Wortham looked for the money. Wortham could not find what he was looking for, and Thomas got out of the shower while Wortham was still there.

Wortham came into the bedroom where Thomas was sitting on the bed, Davis said. Wortham pointed the gun at Mason’s forehead, then at Thomas’ forehead. Thomas and Wortham physically fought, Mason told police, and she was close enough that she could see both their fingers on the trigger of the gun, Davis said this morning.

As Mason tried to leave the apartment, she heard a loud bang and someone yell, as if in pain. She said Wortham ran out of the bedroom, telling her not to tell anyone.

She said she knew Thomas had been shot because he did not come out of the bedroom, Davis testified.

At some point, Mason took Thomas’ phone and Wortham took $400 cash and Thomas’ roommate’s gold teeth and platinum watch, Davis said.

Wortham and Mason left Greenhaven Apartments and went back to Campus Pointe. They gathered a few things and left to go to a hotel on Scottsville Road, according to Davis’ testimony.

With no way to call the police, Thomas managed to go next door to his neighbor’s apartment for help. The 911 call came in at 11:17 p.m. Thomas was flown by helicopter to Vanderbilt, where he died at 2:25 a.m. Sept. 3.

Police gathered phone records and saw that Thomas and Mason communicated 12 times on the day he was shot.

Police tried to question Mason by phone once, but she became very upset and refused to cooperate.

Police then went to Mason’s home in Paducah to question her, but some family members arrived and stopped the interview, according to Davis’ testimony.

Davis and his partner then went to Paducah and interviewed her, receiving the information Davis revealed in the preliminary hearing.