MICHAEL LOGAN THOMAS SENTENCED TO 75 YEARS FOR MURDERING HIS VICTIM AND LIVING IN HIS HOME WITH THE BODY WRAPPED UP IN A BLANKET

Evansville, IN – Prosecutor Diana Moers announces that on May 30, 2025, Michael Logan Thomas was sentenced to 75 years in prison for the murder of Patrick White, enhanced by a Habitual Offender Enhancement. The Honorable Magistrate Judge Ceila M. Pauli of the Vanderburgh County Circuit Court presided.

In July 2022, the Evansville Police Department opened an investigation into a missing person, 57-year-old Patrick White, whom neighbors and friends had not heard from since April of that year. As friends tried to visit White in his apartment, Michael Thomas was found living there and would say to visitors that White was out and that he was house sitting for him.

As the missing person investigation continued, EPD received a tip that a witness overheard their daughter fighting with Thomas over moving a dead body. Thomas was asking for help to move the body because it “started to stink.” After a warrant was obtained, officers searched Patrick White’s apartment and found his decomposing body wrapped in a blanket tied with twine. Detectives interviewed Thomas who claimed he was there when White was killed, but it was his girlfriend who fired the shot. Thomas did admit to helping clean up the dead body and wrapping it in a blanket to be left in the apartment. Thomas did not explain to detectives why he had been staying in the apartment with the deceased occupant. Thomas admitted that he sold the handgun after the murder.

At the sentencing hearing, the prosecution recited the Defendant’s lengthy criminal record and lack of remorse, and highlighted the horrific nature of the crime in which the Defendant shot the victim in the head, wrapped the body in blankets and twine, and continued to live in his apartment for several months.

In entering a sentence of 75 years, which is on the higher end of the possible range, Judge Pauli noted the victim’s family’s impact statement, the Defendant’s refusal to participate in the presentence interview process, that he is a high risk to reoffend, and that he was on parole at the time of the offense. Of particular note was his extensive criminal record, which includes multiple convictions for violent crimes such as domestic battery, battery resulting in serious bodily injury, and battery resulting in bodily injury to a pregnant woman, as well as numerous revocations from alternative court programs.