JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An arrest has been made in the gruesome double murders of a Jacksonville couple on February 15 in a quiet Biltmore-area neighborhood.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office never announced the arrest, but court records obtained by News4JAX show JSO obtained an arrest warrant in July for 29-yr old Gene Thomas Jr, and he was arrested in September after a SWAT standoff in Arlington.
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The motion lists 48-year-old Scott Suits as a co-defendant, but Suits died of a drug overdose one week after the murders.
Thomas is being held on a $2 million bond, and it’s a bond reduction motion that lays out what happened when 60-year old Ronald Dean and 61-year old Vickie Purvis were found shot to death in their home on Jacks Road in February.
According to the motion, Thomas and his uncle Scott Suits went to meet with Ronald Dean over money owed and an argument ensued. Suits had a gun, and when he started picking up items in the house, he handed Thomas the gun and told him to shoot Dean and Purvis if they moved, according to the motion.
The motion shows Thomas shot the couple after Dean “went for a shotgun,” according to statements Suits said to a witness who was not identified.
Family members told News4JAX in February the murder scene was gruesome and that the man and woman were shot multiple times.
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The bond motion says the entire sequence of events was captured on home surveillance cameras.