Thomas Graber

Thomas Graber, known as “Tug” by his friends and family, was described as friendly, giving and witty. He volunteered feeding the homeless at the St. Francis House in Lincolnville, and was beginning to focus his attention on school and become more studious.

This was until Emmanuel Head ended his life.

In October of 2006, Graber was stabbed to death, and his apartment was set ablaze.
Head, 19 at the time, broke into Graber’s apartment and attempted to steal some of his belongings. During the struggle, Graber was stabbed multiple times and bled to death. Attempting to hide the evidence, Head set the apartment on fire and fled the scene. Vincent Sterling, also 19, was also arrested as an accessory to the murder, though Head tells the judge he worked alone.

During the trial in 2008, Head wrote a letter to the judge. He felt that he did not get a fair trial, and wanted to day some things that he had held back on in court.
“I have no rememberence (sic) of stabbing Mr. Graber that many times and it is something that I have shed many tears over. I have been made to look like a monster. Although I am not the world’s most upstanding person, I am also not a monster. In court I held a lot back. One of the things that bothered me the most was when Thomas Graber’s brother Mark Graber said that I was way bigger than Thomas and could have easily overpowered him but the fact of the matter is that less than a week before this happened, I was in the hospital strapped to a IV because of food poisoning. The fact of the matter is I’ve gained 50 pounds since that day. I feel that the only way I could have done this was out of fear.”

In the July 2008 court proceedings when the deposition of Head was given, Mark Graber spoke about the stabbing. He made Head an example of how our society is ugly, that it is not just him, our world is turning into this.

“But what I do know is that afterwards I got to clean up the pool of blood, and all I could think of in the whole entire process was why? If you were looking for self-defense, this man is so much larger than my – I’m bigger than my brother, and he (Thomas Graber) could have easily been taken. And if for the value of a few small hand-held electronics, to take a life? That’s just how society is so ill. But now there’s a 40-year sentence, and that is supposed to somehow console me. I’m supposed to be up here saying that’s going to do it for me.”

Houston was also arrested in relation to the murder of Graber. He was charged with accessory after the fact to murder, but was dismissed of the charges in August 2008. In the court proceedings of July 2008, Head said, "I'd like to say, first, my co-defendent, Vince Houston, didn't have anything to do with this at all." In the Motion to Dismiss regarding Houston, it was reported that Head told Houston to leave after the fact, and inevitably pushed him out of the house. Though it is suspected that Houston knew the death had occurred, "Florida case law states that suspicion is not sufficient for a conviction as an accessory after the fact," as noted in the Motion to Dismiss.

During the court proceedings, Graber’s mother Julie spoke about the mass she attended in St. Augustine a few days before the murder. Graber’s parents were visiting from Ohio. A sense of foreshadowing was spoken through the Bible that day. She read a portion of the gospel to the court that was read in mass that day.
“Jesus said to his disciples, be sure of this, if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would have not let his house be broken into. You must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect the Son of man to come.”

Many people loved Graber, and a clear piece of evidence stating the fact is his memorial group on the social networking website, Facebook. This group, entitled "In Memory of the Late Mr. Thomas Hugh Graber III' , has just over 130 members, family, friends, acquaintances, and people who simply crossed paths with the young man. As the group message says, Graber touched the lives of many in different ways. His friends still write on the wall for the group, each of them missing 'Tug' in their own special way.

The Graber family was not available for comment. Phone calls were attempted but the family did not return the calls.

Days after being convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison, Head wrote this in his letter to Judge Wendy Berger. "I am grateful for the forgiveness shown by his family. I would eventually like to get in contact with the family but as I can't do that, as (sic) least not now, you were the [person] I felt compelled to write." Head is currently in Walton Correctional Institute in Defuniak Springs, Fla.

Story by Breanna Sooter and Christina Arzapalo
Photo credit: Sasha Todd