Checkbook links Edmond man to Oklahoma City homicide scene

“I — 100 percent — did not,” Michael Wayne Thomas said. “That's for sure.”

Thomas specifically denied being at the home during the attack. One of the gambler's attorneys has alleged Thomas was there “before or during her murder.”

“I was not there at the time,” Thomas told The Oklahoman in a telephone interview. “A million percent sure.”

Police detectives this year have been focusing on Thomas in their investigation into the brutal killing of Julie Mitchell at her home in northwest Oklahoma City the evening of Nov. 2, 2010.

The victim was the wife of Teddy Mitchell, who is — according to his attorneys — a legitimate, professional gambler. The FBI and a federal grand jury are investigating whether Teddy Mitchell also ran an illegal gambling operation from his home.

Sources told The Oklahoman that Thomas' company checkbook was found inside the Mitchells' home after the killing.

Other sources told The Oklahoman that Thomas has a partial explanation for why the checkbook was there. Thomas claims he brought the checkbook to the house that day and left it on the porch when no one came to the door, the sources said.

Thomas, 41, and Teddy Mitchell, 57, have had business dealings together in the past.

Thomas would not discuss the checkbook during his brief interview with The Oklahoman. Asked if he talked to police about the checkbook, he said, “I have told the necessary people everything I know, and that's all I really can say about it.”

Thomas said he is cooperating with police.

“Absolutely, but I'm not allowed to comment to anybody else, you know, except through my attorney. I've been trying to cooperate with pretty much everybody, sir,” Thomas said.

He would not say, though, if that included the FBI.

Computers seized

During the investigation this year, police searched Thomas' Edmond home and Edmond insurance office and seized computers. Police also collected a DNA sample from him and talked to an ex-wife. Last year, his daughter, then 18, testified before the state grand jury that is helping in the investigation.