LYNNWOOD — A frequent felon who was a key figure in the saga of an Everett border-watch activist turned double murderer is once again behind bars.
This time, Thomas Wayne Gibler failed to convince police he had no choice but to lead them on a Sept. 19 car chase through south Snohomish County, or risk being shot.
Gibler, 45, was charged last week with two felonies for allegedly attempting to outrun police in Lynnwood and Edmonds.
He reportedly was at the wheel of a stolen car in a chase that ended in a crash. He told police his passenger had threatened to shoot him if he pulled over and surrendered during the pursuit, according to court papers.
If convicted as charged, Gibler’s lifetime felony tally will rise into the mid 20s. He’s yet to “strike out” under the state’s persistent offender law because most of his crimes have involved drugs and stolen property.
That’s not to suggest Gibler has avoided violence.
He once nearly cut off a man’s arm with a Japanese-style sword in a drug case, court papers show. And in late 2008, he was a close associate of Shawna Forde, the founder of a group that called itself Minutemen American Defense. Forde advocated armed citizen patrols at the border between the U.S. and Mexico, supposedly in response to illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
Forde has spent the past five years on Arizona’s death row, appealing her first-degree murder convictions for the 2009 shootings of an Arizona man and his 9-year-old daughter.
A jury ruled Forde deserved death after evidence showed she led a fatal raid on an Arivaca, Arizona, home, believing there was a trove of drugs, weapons and money. Raul and Brisenia Flores were killed and Gina Gonzalez was wounded.
Forde told associates she intended to use loot from the home invasion to fund her border-watch group. While posturing as a crime fighter, Forde and others involved in the deadly raid all were convicted felons.
The killings happened just months after she left Snohomish County following a bizarre flurry of violence. The bloodshed included the near-fatal ambush shooting of her ex-husband, Forde’s claim days later that she was raped by drug cartel members, and her report that she was shot in the arm while being hunted in a north Everett alley.
Police here had big doubts about Forde’s claims that she’d been attacked.
At the time, detectives were attempting to question her about the attempted murder of her ex-husband.
Gibler was Forde’s boyfriend during the bloodshed in Everett. Her ex-husband later said Gibler appeared to be the man who shot him, but Everett police were unable to develop sufficient evidence for charges. Through attorneys, Gibler repeatedly has denied involvement in the attack on Forde’s ex-husband.
The new charges make no mention of Gibler’s past connection with Forde. He’s cycled in and out of prison in the years since.
Officers reportedly found an apparent counterfeit $100 bill and suspected methamphetamine in the stolen Honda that was driven in the Sept. 19 chase.
Gibler said the drugs belonged to his passenger. He also claimed the man had threatened to shoot him and “he was afraid for his life,” according to a preliminary police report on the incident.
He was being held at the county jail on $100,000 bail.
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com.
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