Accused killer had served time for previous violence involving ex-wife

A man accused of shooting at police after allegedly killing his ex-girlfriend’s new beau last week has a history of trouble with women and the law.

Thomas Gary Palmer, 58, who is also charged with kidnapping his ex-girlfriend, had served eight years in prison for holding an ex-wife against her will 20 years ago.

Palmer is charged with fatally shooting 55-year-old Kenneth Hutcheson in the front yard of a Crawford County home. Palmer then kidnapped his ex-girlfriend and took her to Bolingbroke, authorities said.

Palmer was arrested on Klopfer Road, close to where he lived with an ex-wife two decades ago.

On April 4, 1997, three days after Palmer and his ex-wife had separated, Palmer abducted her, held her against her will, beat her and tried to steal her car, Monroe County Superior Court records show. The couple had been married less than a year.

Palmer was charged with false imprisonment and aggravated stalking in the 1997 case. He served eight years of a decade-long sentence for false imprisonment and was released in April 2006.

On Friday morning, before Palmer was arrested after a gun battle with deputies, he allegedly shot and killed Hutcheson. Then, for some reason, he took his ex-girlfriend and drove her by his ex-wife’s house in Bolingbroke, according to a family member of the ex-girlfriend .

About two hours after the killing at Hutcheson’s house on Berlyn Drive, Monroe County sheriff’s deputies were called to a Marathon gas station on U.S. 41 to investigate a woman’s claims that she had been kidnapped after witnessing a shooting.

It wasn’t long before three deputies spotted Palmer, who fired at them with one of two handguns he was toting.

At Palmer’s ex-girlfriend’s home in Lizella on Monday, a family member told The Telegraph that she and Palmer had dated for about two years before she ended the relationship in 2015. Earlier this year, the woman began seeing Hutcheson.

GBI Special Agent J.T. Ricketson said some of the people interviewed in the case said Hutcheson and the woman were planning to seek a restraining order against Palmer before Friday’s fatal confrontation.

A March 16 post on Palmer’s Facebook page apparently addresses the relationships.

Palmer is charged with murder, aggravated assault and kidnapping. He also faces charges in relation to the shootout and resisting arrest in Monroe County.

What’s more, investigators discovered an illegal marijuana growing operation Friday night at Palmer’s home on Burton Avenue in Macon, Ricketson said.

The GBI called in the drug unit of the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office.

“They found a fairly decent quantity of marijuana and some suspected methamphetamine,” Bibb Sheriff David Davis said. “He had kind of a grow operation and had some packages ready to sell.”

“There will be three counties in line for him,” Davis said. “It shows a pattern that this person was involved in some illegal behavior all around.”

At some point, Hutcheson also was involved in growing marijuana.

In October 2010, Hutcheson and 44-year-old Vicki Ann Holcomb were arrested after more than $18,000 worth of marijuana plants were found in an indoor growing operation on Hayes Farm Road in Musella.

Family member Linda Hutcheson said his arrest seven years ago did not paint an accurate picture of his current lifestyle.

“He had turned his life around and had gotten saved,” Hutcheson said.

She feared people would think the men were connected in some sort of drug ring, but Hutcheson said that was not true.

Kenneth Hutcheson had gotten his life on track and was working for a towing company in Peach County, she said.

“Everybody loved him,” she said. “He’s got a kind heart and just got caught up in a bad situation.”

CORRECTION:

The statement that Palmer drove his ex-girlfriend by his ex-wife's house was incorrectly attributed in an earlier version of this story.

This story was originally published April 10, 2017 at 7:20 PM with the headline "Accused killer had served time for previous violence involving ex-wife."