Football
Posted May 7th, 2020
NFL star and former University of Texas standout Earl Thomas is listed as the victim in a domestic violence incident last month in Austin where his wife was arrested after she told police she pointed a loaded weapon at her husband’s head when she found him in bed with another woman.
The incident, first reported by TMZ, happened in the early morning of April 13 at a rental home in East Austin in the 600 block of Brushy Street. Police say they responded to that location and found Thomas’ wife, Nina, chasing her husband in the parking lot with a knife, an arrest affidavit stated. Thomas, according to police, was carrying a pistol that they later determined he had taken away from Nina after she entered the home to confront her husband about cheating. Police ordered the Thomases to the ground and to drop their weapons, and the couple complied, the affidavit states.
Nina Thomas, 30, was arrested and charged with first-degree family violence for burglary of a residence with intent to commit aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Two women who police say accompanied Nina to the residence to confront her husband were charged with burglary of a residence.
Court records show Nina Thomas was released from jail later in the day after posting $25,000 bail. An emergency protective order states she cannot have contact with Earl Thomas or the woman who she found Earl in bed with for 60 days. Nina Thomas in bail paperwork listed her address in Austin as 3900 Pearce Rd, which property records show is a $3.5 million appraised estate in the western part of the city that she and Earl purchased in 2018.
Houston lawyer Jonathan Goins, who is listed as the attorney of record for Nina Thomas, did not return a message Thursday. He previously told TMZ Sports that Nina denies the allegations.
“I am here to declare that my client unequivocally and categorically denies these allegations and we look forward to our day in court where we can clear her good name.”
Nina Thomas is set to appear in Travis County District Court on June 8 for an initial setting in the case.
Earl Thomas, who turned 31 Thursday, was not charged in the incident. He released a video Wednesday night on Twitter addressing the incident.
“Instead of talking about us, just keep us in your prayers,” Thomas said. “Stuff like this happens. We try to live the best lives we possibly can but sometimes it don’t go as planned. Just pray for us as we go through this stuff.”
Thomas, a safety with the Baltimore Ravens, is a seven-time Pro Bowl selection and considered one of the top defensive players in the NFL. He won a Super Bowl after the 2014 season with the Seattle Seahawks, which drafted him in the first round out of the University of Texas in 2010.
Thomas told police that he left the home he shares with Nina in the afternoon before the incident after an argument about him drinking too much alcohol. He said he called his brother to pick him up and the two went to the downtown rental home to watch TV with two women — including one who Thomas told police he had been seeing for three or four months while he worked on his relationship with Nina.
Earl Thomas, according to his wife’s affidavit, was awoken in bed with the other woman at around 1 a.m. when Nina entered the room and pointed a black pistol at him. Nina largely corroborated the events, telling police she put the gun to her husband’s head to scare him. Police say Nina told them she removed the magazine thinking the gun could not fire but was unaware that the gun had a round in the chamber. Nina, according to police, admitted to disengaging the gun’s safety.
Nina told police she tracked her husband’s whereabouts to the rental home through his Snapchat account, which showed several videos of Earl with the other woman. Two women who Nina brought to confront her husband were also taken into custody: her sister, Kayla Baham-Heisser, and her friend Camisha Garlow, the ex-spouse of Earl Thomas’ brother, Seth, who was with the football player at the rental home.
Baham-Heisser took footage of the incident with her phone that police reviewed. The video, according to police, shows Earl Thomas at the top of a staircase with Nina placing the gun within a foot of his head with her finger on the trigger. Nina struck Earl in the nose before the video ended, police said. The video also showed Garlow attempting to attack a woman who was in the home with Seth Thomas.