Guilty Pleas Leave 1 On Trial In Store Killing 16-Year-Olds To Testify Against Friend To Escape Death Penalty
He was the farthest from the scene of the crime and did not witness the shooting, but Thomas Paul Lundquist is the only one of three teens involved who is standing trial for Fidela Tomchak’s murder.
Lundquist’s trial started Tuesday with Jefferson County Prosecutor Robin Dunn warning jurors that “crimes conceived in hell do not have angels as witnesses.”
Defense attorney Jim Archibald, meanwhile, urged the nine-woman, three-man jury that was selected in Boise not to forget who killed the 41-year-old Tomchak, owner of the Grant Store, in November 1995.
“This case is about a killer, a killer by the name of Chris Shanahan,” Archibald said.
Having refused the plea bargains accepted by two other Rigby teenagers for their roles in the killing, Lundquist now faces a prosecution case based largely on their testimony.
Lundquist, 17, is alleged to have waited in the car while Christopher Thomas Shanahan and Benjamin “B.J.” Jenkins entered the convenience store and killed Tomchak.
Jenkins, 16, pleaded guilty Dec. 30 to a lesser charge of second-degree murder and robbery. Shanahan, 16, pleaded guilty on Jan. 21 to first-degree murder and robbery. Both agreed to testify against Lundquist in exchange for prosecutors’ promises not to seek the death penalty.
Shanahan has confessed to shooting the woman in the back of the head and taking money and cigarettes from the store. Jenkins went into the store with Shanahan.
After Shanahan’s guilty plea, he divulged “highly incriminating and damaging evidence against Lundquist,” Dunn said Tuesday.
The prosecutor said the three boys arrived at the Grant Store with loaded guns, gas cans and bags packed with clothes. Dunn said each boy had a specific role: Lundquist was to stay in the car and shoot anyone who came up to the store; Shanahan was to pull the trigger; and Jenkins was to distract Tomchak.