Suspect in photo-van death kept small arsenal at home

by Michael Ferraresi - Jun. 3, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Thomas DeStories kept a small arsenal at the home where police arrested him in April on suspicion of fatally shooting an Arizona Department of Public Safety photo-enforcement van driver on Loop 101 in Phoenix.

A Phoenix police report released Tuesday detailed how during a search of his north Valley home, investigators seized hundreds of rounds of live and spent bullets for everything from a .357 Magnum to rifles and small-caliber weapons.

They found shells in a kitty-litter bucket in a closet, the report showed.

Among the weapons was a .40-caliber Beretta found in the saddlebag of DeStories' Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which investigators said was the gun DeStories admitted to using during the April 19 shooting of Doug Georgianni.

DeStories, 68, was arrested one day after the shooting. He told police he was "sorry" and that he intended on turning himself in after seeing TV news reports that Georgianni, 51, was shot to death inside the DPS vehicle, which was on a deployment near the Seventh Street exit on Loop 101.

"I'm honest. It was an accident . . . I mean it wasn't an accident, but . . . oh my God," DeStories told Phoenix investigators, according to a transcript of a taped conversation.

The report showed how a girlfriend and others who knew him said it was out of DeStories' character to try to kill someone - that he drove cautiously and was a good neighbor.

Others provided police with a different description. An ex-wife who was married to DeStories for 20 years said he had " 'masked depression,' where he pretended he was OK."

She told investigators he is "the kind of guy that thinks he has rights that are being stepped on," according to the report.

A neighbor said he was "bizarre," and that he stopped at his home in his underwear in the middle of the night to complain about his dogs.

DeStories was indicted in April on charges of first-degree murder, drive-by shooting and discharge of a firearm at a structure.

 

There’s nothing wrong with owning a small arsenal.  Unless you are a lunatic.  And I’m sure that his totally impartial ex wife can vouch for his insanity.