No lawyer yet for cold-case suspect

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) - Steven Alan Thomas, suspect in the 1980 homicide of Mildred McKinney, was brought before Williamson County Judge Billy Ray Stubblefield for his first hearing Thursday.

Thomas, 53, did not have an attorney present and Judge Stubblefield reset the hearing for Oct. 1, giving the defendant 30 more days to find representation.

The suspect was arrested and charged with capital murder in July, after investigators said his DNA matched DNA collected at the murder scene where McKinney, 73, was killed.

Thomas did have a criminal history, but had never committed a crime that required him to submit his DNA to the nationwide DNA database, until earlier this year when he was arrested on federal drug charges and indicted in March on a charge of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and possession of marijuana.

He has denied any involvement in the McKinney murder and in an interview this week with KXAN News, Thomas' mother said she does not believe he is guilty.

"I know it sounds like a mother defending her child. I'm not that kind of mother," said Rita Thomas. "My son is a ... long way from being an angel. But he's even further away from being the monster they're portraying him."