Ex-Con Who Encased Hemet Man In Cement Tomb Sentenced

An ex-con who killed an 80-year-old Hemet man he befriended, then encased the victim’s body in a concrete tomb in San Diego and used his credit cards to go on a spending spree, was sentenced today to 75 years to life in state prison.

Thomas Jeffrey Brooks, 41, pleaded guilty March 18 in San Diego to first- degree murder and other charges in the death of Edward Clayton Andrews.

Linda Runions, one of Andrews’ four children, said her father — a former Methodist minister — was an intelligent, gentle and shy man who loved his family and friends deeply.

“One of his hobbies was to correspond with pen pals,” Runions told San Diego Superior Court Judge David Gill.

“He thought that perhaps if he could show people in prison that they were cared about, maybe they could turn their lives around,” she said. “Thomas Jeffrey Brooks took advantage of that, and used my father’s compassion for him to escape the justice system that had already convicted him for offenses. He pretended friendship to my dad, and deliberately began to steal from him.”

Runions said she and her husband were in the process of moving from Missouri to Riverside County to be close to her father when he disappeared in 2008.

“Those of us who loved him are tormented by the thought of how my father must have felt when he realized that the man he had befriended was actually going to take his life, brutally kill him,” Runions said. “And we are further horrified by the heartless way he disposed of my dad’s body.”

Runions said Brooks would have destroyed more lives had he not been caught.

“We are taught that the desire for revenge is wrong. But I hope that as long as Brooks lives, he will be haunted by the memory of what it was like to take my father’s life, and by the knowledge that his own greed and temper led him to never again be free.”

Runions said she wished the death penalty system really worked.

“The murderers, by plea bargaining, slip into a life in prison … being clothed, fed and entertained,” she said. “I can safely bet that their victims tried to plead for their lives.”

Brooks was in federal prison for child abuse and other convictions when he became pen pals with Andrews, according to Deputy District Attorney Dino Paraskevopoulos.

The defendant was released in 2007, moved into a Hemet mobile home with Andrews and began a romantic relationship with him, the prosecutor said.

On May 31, 2008, a neighbor saw Brooks go into the mobile home and the defendant said Andrews was fine, but the victim was never seen again, the prosecutor said.

Brooks moved to San Diego and was allowed to build a concrete centerpiece for a rock garden at his landlord’s North Park home, the prosecutor said.

After Brooks was arrested on financial fraud charges, neighbors partially broke open the concrete structure in September 2008 and a foot popped out, according to Paraskevopoulos.

Andrews, who died of asphyxiation, had been wrapped in a blanket and plastic tarp, with duct tape and chicken wire used to secure the remains in the homemade tomb, the prosecutor said.

Paraskevopoulos said Brooks used Andrews’ credit cards to go on a shopping spree in which he piled up nearly $25,000 in charges before he was caught.

Arlo Elizarraraz, an acquaintance who helped Brooks encase the victim’s body and lived off some of the stolen money, pleaded guilty to 55 counts — including being an accessory to murder and was sentenced to nine years in prison.