Gibson Testifies In Court He Did Not Kill Palmer He Says Reporter Who Quoted Him Confessing To The Crime Got It Wrong

Thomas Henry Gibson, who has spent more than 15 years on Idaho’s Death Row, says he didn’t commit the killing that got him there.

Gibson denied Tuesday that he killed Kimberly Ann Palmer, 19, a Spokane woman whose 1980 death resulted in death sentences for Gibson and fellow motorcycle gang member Donald Manual Paradis.

Gov. Phil Batt earlier this year commuted Paradis’ death sentence to life with no possibility of parole, ruling that there were some inconsistencies in his case that precluded the death sentence.

Paradis and Gibson were charged with killing the girl in a rural area near Post Falls, although defense attorneys have maintained for years that the slaying actually occurred in Spokane.

Gibson, 45, testified in the second day of a hearing before U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill. It’s expected to last all week.

Gibson disputed a 1984 story from the Spokane Chronicle, in which reporter David Bond reported that Gibson admitted in an interview that he killed the girl and Paradis wasn’t involved.

“This was an embellishment of what I told him,” Gibson said. “This isn’t exactly what I told Mr. Bond.”

Gibson said he has admitted for years that he was present when the woman was killed, and helped dispose of her body. But he didn’t strangle her.

Deputy Attorney General Lynn Thomas asked Gibson flatly if he killed Palmer. “No, I did not,” he said. “I’m saying that Mr. Bond is mistaken.”

He said the reporter used “theatrics” to make his bylined story sound better.

Gibson said he grabbed the girl as she ran out of Paradis’ Spokane home when a fight broke out and knocked her unconscious with three blows to the face and neck. But she was still alive at that time, he said.

Gibson was clean-shaven, wearing a white shirt and tie, hair carefully combed. Thomas showed him a picture when Gibson was a wild-haired, bearded motorcycle gang member.

“I was in my 20s then. I was taking more drugs, speed, than you would ever believe,” Gibson said.

Thomas cited instances where Gibson made inconsistent statements, accusing him of stating out of court that he was responsible for the girl’s death, but never saying it under oath.

“You’re just trying to exonerate Mr. Paradis in a way that won’t get you in trouble,” Thomas asked.

“I’m in as much trouble as you can get,” Gibson said.

He said he’s aware that he could be tried in the state of Washington for murdering the girl, if it is proven that the slaying occurred in Spokane and not in Idaho.

Gibson admitted that he lied to authorities when he was first questioned about the slayings of Palmer and Scott Currier.

He said it was because he had been “high” on drugs for days, and was on what he called a “speed run,” coming down from the drug-induced high.

“I was coming down very hard, very fast,” he said.

Boise criminal defense attorney David Nevin testified that in his opinion, Gibson’s defense attorney, Michael Vrable, didn’t do a good job at Gibson’s trial.

“He failed to address the central issue in the case, where did she die?” Nevin said.