Sledgehammer killer Thomas McDonald dies in prison at 74

DAWSON CREEK, B.C. — A man who killed someone in Dawson Creek and went on to kill his roommate with a sledgehammer years later has died in prison.

According to a press release from Correctional Service Canada, 74-year-old Thomas Anthony McDonald died at a prison in Abbotsford, B.C. on Friday, September 19th.

McDonald was serving an indeterminate sentence that began in late 2015 for the 1981 murder of Earl Jones.

According to news coverage from the time of his eventual arrest, McDonald shot and killed Jones after a confrontation at a bar in Dawson Creek.

Following the shooting, RCMP officers set up a road block in the area. Reportedly, McDonald was stopped and questioned at the road block, but police didn’t have sufficient evidence at the time to arrest him.

Shortly after, McDonald — visiting Canada at the time — left the country for the United States. 

Later coverage indicates he was deported from the US and moved to the United Kingdom in 2002, where he went on to kill his roommate with a sledgehammer for allegedly going through his belongings.

He was granted parole in the UK under strict conditions in 2007, whereupon he fled back to Canada. 

Two years later, RCMP officers discovered he had returned and set up a sting that led to his 2011 arrest for killing Jones. 

Ultimately, after a trial in front of a Supreme Court judge with no jury present, Jones was acquitted of first degree murder but convicted of manslaughter in 2014. 

A year later, the court deemed him a “dangerous offender,” meaning he was assigned an indeterminate sentence.

Corrections Services Canada says McDonald died of “apparent natural causes,” although in accordance with standard policy, the agency will reportedly review the circumstances surrounding his death. 

It will also notify police and the B.C. Coroners Service.