Reported by Staff
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Thirty-five-year-old Timothy Eugene Thomas has been handed two life sentences following his nolo contendere plea to the 2010 murder of Sebastian Ochsenius, a teenager of 16 years. This verdict adds to the three life sentences he already faces.
In the early hours of June 29, 2010, an intruder slipped into the Ochsenius residence via a sliding glass door around 3:45 a.m. Sebastian, who was engrossed in video games with a friend at his family’s home near the Millhopper Branch Library, became the tragic victim. His friend recounted that Sebastian had risen to head to the kitchen when shots suddenly echoed through the house. Rushing alongside Sebastian’s father, they found him, but he succumbed to his injuries shortly after. When police arrived, neither the friend nor the father had seen the assailant.
Though case documents remain sealed, new evidence came to light in 2020. Consequently, on December 14, 2023, the Grand Jury of Alachua County’s Winter Term indicted Thomas on charges of homicide during trafficking and armed burglary. Today, he entered a plea of nolo contendere to these charges, leading Judge Robert Groeb to impose two life sentences without parole.
In a letter to Judge Groeb, Thomas’s mother claimed he was with Jaxon Coleman and an unidentified woman on the night of the murder. They allegedly traveled to Gainesville for a drug-related robbery, targeting marijuana, before heading to Tallahassee. She argued that Coleman’s DNA was found on a shirt at the crime scene and that he had implicated Thomas in the crime to secure immunity. Although she acknowledged her son’s involvement in previous crimes, she contested the evidence in this case, suggesting it more heavily implicated Coleman.
Thomas’s criminal record is extensive. In 2011, he was arrested for an armed robbery in Orange County, resulting in a four-year prison sentence. Following his release in April 2015, he was stopped in October of the same year in Key West for a traffic violation. During the stop, he shot a Monroe County Sheriff’s Deputy, who survived due to a protective vest. This incident led to a life sentence in 2018. By October 2025, he received another life sentence for a homicide charge in Miami-Dade County, which added to his lengthy incarceration.
