Thomas Manuel Paige Jr. murdered two women in their apartment, shot a man five times, shot another woman in the neck, then vanished.

Nineteen years ago, Thomas Manuel Paige Jr. murdered two women in their apartment, shot a man five times, shot another woman in the neck, then vanished.
For 18 years Paige stayed on the lam as Roanoke police followed numerous tips that led nowhere. But his life as a fugitive ended last year when federal marshals arrested him in Jamaica.Tuesday in Roanoke Circuit Court, the case ended for good. Paige pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Sylvia LaVern Baker, the capital murder of Debra Jean Salters, the malicious woundings of Wilfred Branch and Joyce Washington, and four counts of using a firearm in a felony in the May 27, 1989, shootings.Under the plea agreement, Paige, 41, received two life sentences plus an additional 58 years to serve.Stan Smith, supervisor of Roanoke's downtown police units, investigated the homicides in 1989 when he worked as a sergeant in the major crimes unit. "It feels really good," he said of Paige's capture and plea. "It's definitely the close of a chapter."There are only two possible punishments for a conviction on a capital murder charge: life in prison or the death penalty. By pleading guilty to that charge, Paige guaranteed he would serve a life sentence while avoiding the possibility of execution.Paige's voice quavered as he read from a handwritten note before Judge Clifford Weckstein sentenced him. "I would like to thank God for sparing my life."He said he wanted to offer his condolences to the families of the people he killed and wounded. "I am sorry for so much pain and sorrow I've caused."He blamed his actions that day on alcohol, marijuana and cocaine: "I wasn't aware of what took place till shortly after this crime."Members of Salters' family who attended the hearing did not seem appeased by Paige's apology, vocally criticizing his words as they left the courtroom.
Branch, too, was unsatisfied. "I don't know why the people who ask for mercy never give it," he said.Paige's defense attorneys, Chris Kowalczuk and Jeffrey Dorsey, asserted after the hearing that their client feels genuine remorse.
"The Thomas Paige that was in court today is a completely different person from the Thomas Paige of 20 years ago," Kowalczuk said.
After fleeing to Jamaica, Paige worked as a painter, lived in abject poverty under an assumed name and stayed out of trouble with the law, attorneys said.
But Paige's past caught up with him after someone wired money to him using his real name, Dorsey said.Roanoke police had received tips about Paige's supposed whereabouts for years, but none proved legitimate until authorities finally found him in May 2007 and confirmed his identity with fingerprints.Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell praised Roanoke police and U.S. Marshals for never giving up on the case.Assistant Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney John McNeil summarized the evidence prosecutors would have presented had the case gone to trial.
Branch and Washington had met at a club hours before the homicides. Because Washington was a friend of Baker's, they went to the apartment that Baker shared with Salters in the 2300 block of Staunton Avenue Northwest.They arrived to find Paige and two other men at the apartment. The entire group at the apartment had been using cocaine, McNeil said.Branch and Washington decided to leave, but Salters asked them to stay and instead asked Paige to leave, which apparently made him angry. He left briefly but returned with a handgun.He shot Baker first, then Salters. Both women died from wounds to the head.He then saw Branch and Washington retreat into a room and came after them. Branch tried to hold the door closed but Paige forced it open, shot Branch five times and shot Washington in the neck. Then he left.
Interviewed by Smith after his capture and extradition, Paige said he snapped, and he blamed the drugs and alcohol for his behavior.But Branch said that Paige's actions were too cold and calculating for that explanation to make sense.He still vividly remembers Paige's rampage, which he said came suddenly, with no apparent motivation.Alone with Washington in another room, he heard a noise like a gunshot but saw a truck laboring up a hill and thought its engine had backfired.
Then he looked out into the hallway and saw Paige shoot Salters in the head. The next thing he knew, Paige was gunning for him."I was there but I couldn't save or prevent this thing from happening. I couldn't change it," Branch said. "That has haunted me."Salters' daughter, Latisha, and son, Joshua, were both in the apartment when she was killed.Joshua Salters, who was 3 when his mother was killed, wasn't in the courtroom Tuesday. In March, he pleaded guilty to the September murder of Keith Leon Lewis and received a 23-year sentence