Bastrop County man charged with second murder charge over deadly drug deals

AUSTIN, Texas (FOX 7 Austin) - Austin police have linked 23-year-old Isaac Jerome Thomas Junior to two separate deadly drug shootings in the span of two months. The victims do not appear to have known each other, but Sgt. Eric De Los Santos said there is one surprising link in both cases.

"Unfortunately these were over the sale of marijuana which is surprising to us to have so many of these types of deaths over the sale of marijuana not any harder drugs," said Santos. 

Thomas was arrested in November for shooting 25-year-old Tony Lamar Huggins. Huggins was found dead in the Walmart parking lot on Norwood Park Boulevard. Santos said witnesses in Huggins case led investigators to check Thomas’s phone record. 

APD then checked Thomas’s phone records that tied him to an unsolved murder case back in September. 26-year-old Joshua Hardesty, who was shot to death outside an apartment complex on East Parmer Lane.

Thomas’s bail is set at $333,000.

Hardesty's case is one of at least 33 murders the department has investigated in 2018.