A man set to stand trial this week in the killing of his former girlfriend has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and been sentenced to 22 years in prison, 19th Judicial District Court records show.
State prosecutors intended to show that Andre Thomas, 63, beat Angel Denise Stevens-Malik to death in late 2018, part of a history of abuse. Malik's partially decomposed body was found Dec. 19, 2018, in a wooded area just off Airline Highway in the 3700 block of Victoria Drive. She had been severely beaten and was bound by rope knotted around her left wrist and right ankle. The 43-year-old Baton Rouge woman's nude body was partially wrapped in a mildewed Red Cross blanket.
East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office detectives discovered traces of Thomas' DNA underneath Malik's fingernails and on the rope tied around her wrist and ankles, according to investigative reports. Thomas also admitted that the blanket wrapped around her body was his.
His second-degree murder trial was set to begin Monday, but Thomas pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter. District Judge Gail Ray imposed the 22-year sentence Tuesday as part of the plea deal, according to court records.
A brutal beating
According to detectives, a mechanic at a nearby used-car dealership was on his way to work when he stopped to urinate in the woods. He discovered Malik's remains in a ditch just south of the bridge on Victoria Road. Investigators noted the woman had a large internal bruise on the right side of her head, both of her eyes were swollen, two of her ribs were fractured, and she suffered blunt force trauma wounds to her back and shoulders. Her autopsy also showed ligature marks all over her body consistent with being tied to an unknown object.
East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner Beau Clark determined she died of asphyxiation and blunt force trauma injuries to the face, head and torso. Louisiana State Police crime lab analysts extracted Thomas' DNA from Malik's fingernail clippings and the rope used to tie her limbs.
Malik's family reported her missing to Baton Rouge police on Dec. 2 -- more than two weeks before her body was found. The woman's older sister told sheriff's deputies she was last seen near Winborne Avenue. Family members told detectives she had a history of mental illness that intensified in 2016 after her mother died and she lost her house in the floods, case files indicate. After those traumatic events, Malik took to living on the streets near Airline Highway and Victoria Drive, detectives noted.
A history of abuse
Investigators indicated Thomas and Malik had a volatile relationship with a history of abuse that dated back several years. Prosecutors intended to show jurors evidence of at least one of their encounters to show the killing was part of a pattern of violence Thomas inflicted upon the woman. He pleaded guilty to battery charges stemming from a May 2013 incident in which Malik told police that Thomas beat her into unconsciousness and kidnapped her. She said he held her against her will in his vehicle for almost a week until she managed to escape while he was passed out, court records indicate.
A district judge barred prosecutors from using the incident as trial evidence, but the First Circuit Court of Appeal reversed that ruling in February 2023.
Homicide detectives included Thomas' lengthy rap sheet in their investigative notes. It showed he was a convicted sex offender who had been arrested 58 times dating back to 1981 for a host of alleged offenses.
Court records from the 19th JDC show he pleaded guilty to sexual battery in 2014 and was sentenced to two years in prison. He was also accused of aggravated rape and false imprisonment with a dangerous weapon in 2000, but prosecutors dismissed the charges three years later because they were unable to locate the alleged victim.
When detectives questioned Thomas about Malik's killing, he said he spent time with her two days after a Dec. 8, 2018, snowstorm and there were no problems between them. He told officers she wrapped his Red Cross blanket around herself as she left his residence. It was the same blanket covering Malik's face and upper body 10 days later. When investigators confronted him with evidence collected from the crime scene, Thomas couldn't explain how his DNA got on the victim's fingernails or the rope she was bound with, according to prosecutors from the East Baton Rouge District Attorney's Office.