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A witness in a high profile Oklahoma City gambling case was attacked back in July, according to his lawyer.
Insurance agent Michael Wayne Thomas, 41, suffered a concussion and black eye from the July 27 attack in his office by assailants who are yet to be identified. Thomas was both a government witness in the federal gambling case and the focus of an Oklahoma City police homicide investigation.
An 81-count federal indictment was unsealed charging 10 defendants with crimes involving an illegal gambling operation and the money laundering of proceeds derived from that operation. One of the men charged, Teddy Mitchell, 57, is the husband of a slain Oklahoma City woman.
Julie Mitchell was found brutally beaten to death two years ago. Thomas is considered a suspect in the murder. He has repeatedly denied any involvement in the homicide though his company checkbook was found at her Oklahoma City home where the lifeless body was discovered.
“I — 100 percent — did not,” he said in May. “That's for sure. I was not there at the time.”
Thomas described his attacker as a man resembling a mixed martial arts fighter.
Some have gone on record as suggesting that Thomas owes substantial debts to various individuals living in the community.
- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com
