A St. Louis man’s new acquaintance dropped dead of a drug overdose in his Dutchtown living room last April.
But it’s what happened after the man’s death that landed 48-year-old David Thompson in court yesterday, on trial for felony abandonment of a corpse, a crime that can carry as stiff a penalty as four years in prison.
According to prosecutors, Thompson wrapped the dead man's body in industrial plastic sheeting, then in a layer of Saran wrap. He rolled that into two carpets, securing it all with rope. He allegedly waited five days before taking the body out to a nearby parking pad.
The next morning Thompson took his dog for a walk around the block and noticed "something wrapped up" in a rug laying out on the parking pad. He told police that he didn't realize that there was a body in the rolled-up rug, but because he thought it looked strange he thought it best to call 911.
One of the first people to take the stand for the prosecution yesterday was David Rudolph, the St. Louis homicide detective who responded to Thompson’s call. Prosecutors Jessica Vestal and Bret Rich played for the jury Rudolph’s body cam footage from the scene, which showed the detective growing more and more suspicious of Thompson as the morning wore on.
One of the carpets the dead man was wrapped in was frayed at its edges, Rudolph testified, and a trail of carpet fabric led directly from Thompson's apartment, down the stairs and to where the rolled-up body had been left. In the basement of the building where Thompson lived, there was a rug-shaped outline where it seemed there had until very recently been some sort of floor covering.
When Rudolph searched Thompson's house, the first thing he noticed was that the apartment’s window was open — not an unusual thing in and of itself in April, but also indicative of someone possibly trying to get the stench out of a place.
In the bathroom, Rudolph discovered a mop bucket with a bunch of wet, dirty towels. He found a shoe on Thomoson’s shoe rack with carpet fibers stuck in the tread.
The shoe, Thompson told Rudolph, belonged to his ex-husband, who was frequently homeless and who Thompson hadn’t seen in nine months, but whom Thompson claimed had recently showed up at his apartment.
After initially denying knowing who was rolled up in the carpet, Thompson eventually acknowledged it was a man named Glenn Williams. Thompson said he met him on North Grand and had him over to his house. They watched TV and listened to music. Williams tried on clothes and talked about getting connected to resources to get a job. He then began acting erratically, and at some point died.
In Thompson’s interviews with Rudolph at the police station, Thompson said he didn’t call 911 sooner because he was worried about a separate case pending against him at that time, as well as concerns about his landlord.
He also blamed both the overdose and delay in reporting of the death on his recently re-appeared ex-husband, a man who prosecutors say there was no evidence was ever at the scene other than Thompson’s word.
When Thompson’s defense attorney Matthew Mueller questioned Rudolph, it was unclear to what extent, if any, the police had tried to locate Thompson’s ex-husband as part of their investigation.
Mueller also challenged the idea that his client should have been charged at all, given that he was the one who ultimately called 911. He put this question directly to Rudolph during cross examination.
The detective retorted that Thompson waited five days to report the death — and even then he hadn't called 911 about a dead person. He’d called, Rudolph noted, to report "a suspicious rug.”
In addition to Rudolph, the medical examiner took the stand and confirmed Williams died of a fentanyl overdose.
It is unknown if Thompson will take the stand in his own defense. The trial is expected to wrap up later today.
Update: The jury found Thompson guilty. Our latest report has details from the day's testimony and his sentence.
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