Oct 23, 2012 4 min read

A decorated war veteran charged in a homicide Thursday in Washington had been detained briefly days earlier by North Franklin Township police after they reportedly found him passed out in his parked vehicle wearing a bulletproof vest with a loaded semiautomatic handgun strapped to his waist and carrying a cache of other legal weapons.Township police said they took Brandon Daniel Thomas, 30, of Upper St. Clair, to Washington Hospital early Oct. 15 for blood tests on suspicion he was driving under the influence of alcohol and for an evaluation after he claimed to be paranoid about someone chasing him from a Red Roof Inn.Police said an officer had approached Thomas’ 2006 GMC Hummer about 12:05 a.m. because it was parked with its brake lights illuminated in the parking lot of the closed Club 40 at 3390 W. Chestnut St. Thomas was later released from the hospital and freed because North Franklin police had no evidence to hold him for a crime since he had a permit to carry a concealed weapon and his guns and rifles had been legally obtained, township police Chief Rich Horner said. Police are still waiting for the blood test results that will determine whether he will be charged with DUI.Three days later, Thomas, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with three Purple Hearts, called Washington County 911 about 4 p.m. saying he had shot a man during an altercation in a Shop ‘n Save parking lot in neighboring Washington, and then waited for city police to arrive. The shooting victim, Vaughn A. Simonelli, 55, of Washington, died after being shot twice in the chest in what city police said was an altercation stemming from a possible case of road rage along Jefferson Avenue leading to the grocery store.Thomas’ attorney, Frank Walker of Pittsburgh, claims his client acted in a “clear case” of justifiable self-defense when he shot Simonelli.Walker said Thomas never got out of his Hummer and shot Simonelli after the man reached inside the window and punched him.”The deceased was the aggressor,” Walker said.In court documents Washington police used to obtain a warrant to search the Hummer, it states Thomas admitted to investigators that he discharged his firearm at Simonelli from inside his vehicle.”He did allege that Vaughn Simonelli had at some point partially entered his vehicle in furtherance of an assault,” Detective Daniel Rush stated in the affidavit supporting the warrant signed Friday by District Judge Robert Redlinger.Police later returned an inventory of the items they seized in the search, identifying them as a driver’s side front door panel and receipts dated Thursday from a GetGo convenience store for a $36.20 purchase and another for $256.47 from a transaction at Atlantic Gold Exchange. Police searched the vehicle looking for clothing fibers, gunshot residue, spent shells, blood, handguns and ammunition, the document indicates.Walker said Pennsylvania’s Castle Doctrine signed into law in 2011 gives people the right to use deadly force against an attacker while in their home or anywhere else they have a legal right to be, including inside their vehicles. However, he said he cannot raise the issue in the defense until the prosecutor has completed his reports on the case, meaning Thomas could spend months in jail.Walker said he has received an incredible outpouring of support for Thomas, who suffered wounds from a bullet, shrapnel and a roadside explosion while serving his country. Thomas also is awaiting military confirmation that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his combat service. Thomas told North Franklin police he had recently moved to the area from Florida, but they did not know why he was in the Washington area last week.Horner said Thomas was pleasant to deal with and showed up at the police impound yard at 8 a.m. the day after he was taken to the hospital to claim his vehicle and three handguns, a shotgun and three rifles in cases in the back of his vehicle.He said Thomas has prior arrests in Florida and all of the cases had been dropped by the prosecution.Thomas, who was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, is in the Washington County jail without bond on a charge of criminal homicide, awaiting a preliminary hearing at 9:30 a.m. today in Central Court.