Hearing set for murder suspect

By Brian McCauley, bmccauley@miconews.com

The evidence surrounding the murder of an Osawatomie resident last month is set to be unveiled during a preliminary hearing in June.

Thomas E. Pool, 41, of Louisburg was arrested earlier this month near Wichita and charged with premeditated murder in the first degree in the shooting death of Billy Gene Cooper of Osawatomie. The felony is punishable by life in prison.

Cooper was killed April 8 when an assailant fired nine shots at him apparently as he answered the front door of the house he rented at 816 Chestnut Ave., police previously said.

Pool, who is being held on $1 million bond, appeared in Miami County District Court on Tuesday ,and District Judge Amy Harth scheduled an all-day preliminary hearing beginning at 9 a.m. June 27.

A preliminary hearing is used to determine if there is enough evidence against a defendant to warrant a bench trial.

Pool is no stranger to hard time, as his criminal record stretches back to a conviction on two counts of burglary in Sedgwick County in 1984.

Pool also made local headlines in November 2003 when he and another prisoner broke out of the Osawatomie Correctional Facility. He was serving a sentence for drug possession, two counts of robbery and theft at the time, and both men were recaptured nine days later near Wichita.

Pool’s latest arrest comes after a three-and-a-half week investigation.