Thomas Addington on Monday was found guilty a second time of second-degree murder in the shooting death of 40-year-old Amanda Yellico in Fremont County District Court.
A jury found Addington, 65, guilty of murder in the second degree on Jan. 31, 2020. On April 1, 2020, he was sentenced to 38 years in the Department of Corrections.
A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals on Oct. 5, 2023, reversed that conviction because the “trial court improperly instructed the jury on ‘tenancy at will,’ a tenancy without a predetermined duration for the tenancy.
His second jury trial began June 25 with closing statements presented Monday. The jury deliberated for about five hours before reaching the guilty verdict.
The jury also found that Addington did not act on a provoked and sudden heat of passion.
During an interview with police after the Dec. 23, 2018, shooting, Addington said that Yellico had been staying at his residence for about a month but had left for a while and came back a few days before the shooting. He said he wanted her to find a new place to live because she didn’t help much around the house, which he said made him angry.
A few hours before the shooting, Addington thought Yellico and some men were going to rob him and take his house. Yellico had taken his phone and wouldn’t give it back, he said in previous reports, so he wasn’t able to call for help.
Addington said he went to his basement to get away from Yellico and later heard voices upstairs. He yelled through the basement door and told her he would shoot his gun if they didn’t leave. He later heard voices again and shot several rounds of warning shots up through the floor.
During closing statements, Addington’s defense attorney, Randy Canney, said it was unthinkable that Addington had to chain himself in his basement because he was scared.
He said Addington did a good act by letting Yellico temporarily stay at his house during the winter when everyone else had kicked her out. Neighbors testified that they witnessed Yellico acting strangely and aggressively and were afraid to confront her. Addington finally told Yellico she had to leave, but she returned to the home.
“She tried to jimmy the door and took stuff; if someone is trying to jimmy the door and they don’t have a key, they are not welcome there,” Canney said. “…He just wanted her out of his house at this point.”
None of the shots were meant as any kind of knowing killing, Canney said, but rather warning shots.
A friend of Addington’s found Yellico deceased on the kitchen floor the next day.
“He was asleep downstairs; when [the police] finally bring him up, he is shocked, he has no idea what had happened, he didn’t know,” Canney said. “It was not knowing. If it is not knowing, it is not second-degree murder.”
He pointed out that Yellico didn’t have a lease and Addington had repeatedly told her to get out.
“Thomas Addington did not knowingly kill Amanda Yellico,” he said. “He was properly defending his home and himself.”
Deputy District Attorney Wendy Owens argued that Addington’s action was “knowing.”
“Thomas Addington took his .308 rifle and shot up through the floor at Amanda Yellico causing her death,” she said. “He knew her as Mandy; she was his friend’s daughter. She was a woman that he invited to live with him.”
On the night of Yellico’s death, Addington fired a warning shot, went upstairs with his gun, told her to go to bed and then returned to the basement. A few hours later, he fired more rounds through the ceiling from the basement and went to sleep.
“Thomas Addington was aware that his conduct was of such a nature as to end the pitter patter of feet,” Owens said. “He was aware that his conduct was practically certain to end a life.”
She said his conduct was not legally authorized by the affirmative defenses listed in the jury instructions.
“Amanda Yellico lived there; she had been staying there; she was getting her mail there; she had a bedroom there; her stuff was there,” Owens said. “It’s obvious she still considered herself to be living there. Not only that, but Thomas Addington does not treat her like an unlawful intruder.”
Instead of telling her to leave, he told her to go to bed and shut the (expletive) up.
“He was not shooting to stop the threat, he wasn’t shooting to defend himself from an imminent threat,” Owens said. “He’s not shooting to defend himself from someone who was right there; he’s firing warning shots and he just starts shooting. … Thomas Addington was not in imminent danger of being killed or receiving great bodily injury. … If there was any use of unlawful physical force, he provoked it and he was the initial aggressor.”
Addington’s sentencing is slated for Sept. 27.
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