CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – As the case is bound over to the grand jury, new details have emerged in the March 15 Clarksville mobile home stabbing death, including that the suspects entered the victim’s car and left a trail leading police to their identification, according to court testimony.
On March 15, Clarksville Police responded to a reported crash at the mobile home park on Cedarcrest Drive in New Providence. Instead of a crash, they found Thomas Birk Gray Jr. with several stab wounds. He later died from his injuries.
Five days later, police arrested 33-year-old Jassim Al-Robaie of Davidson County, and 31-year-old Karlie Jade Parks of Clarksville. Both were charged with homicide and booked into the Montgomery County Jail on March 21.
Investigation finds surveillance cameras
According to the arrest warrant and testimony from Tuesday’s preliminary hearing, police were able to use surveillance camera footage to aid them in their investigation.
At approximately 1:32 a.m., a silver Chrysler 300 was observed parking in the Campville Mobile Home Park area. According to the arrest warrant, “a white male and female then exit the vehicle and walk off camera briefly.”
Twelve minutes later, at 1:44 a.m., surveillance footage showed the victim, Gray, pulling his maroon Nissan Altima into the same area. The same man and woman from the Chrysler are seen entering Gray’s vehicle – the woman getting in the front passenger seat beside Gray, and the man getting in the driver-side rear behind Gray.
Almost immediately, the Nissan begins to roll forward, striking the front bumper of the Chrysler. According to court testimony, the man in the back seat hops out, runs around the back of the Nissan and pulls Gray out from the passenger side. The man and the woman then get in the Chrysler and leave the area.
At 2 a.m., police responded to a 911 call from the translation line – a translation service that helps connect law enforcement with interpreters – regarding a possible rollover crash. When police arrived, they instead found an unresponsive Gray slumped against the passenger side door of his Nissan, bleeding from apparent stab wounds. He was rushed to Tennova Healthcare-Clarksville, where he later died from his injuries.
Suspect left wallet in victim’s car
As police began to investigate the scene, they found a red wallet in the back of Gray’s vehicle. According to the warrant, inside the wallet, police found the driver’s license of Jassim Al-Robaie, with the picture bearing a strong resemblance to the man seen on the footage.
Police then searched the Department of Motor Vehicles records and found that Al-Robaie owned a silver Chrysler 300. According to the warrant, police also observed a silver/grayish paint transfer in the front-end damage of Gray’s Nissan from where it rolled into the Chrysler.
When law enforcement searched Al-Robaie’s Facebook page, they discovered that two days after the homicide, Al-Robaie got engaged to “Karlie Parks.”
According to the warrant, when police searched the victim’s phone, they found that Gray had made a call 22 minutes before the stabbing. When police searched their databases, they found that number he had called that night belonged to Parks.
Upon searching the driver’s license photo of Parks, police were able to match the license to the “Karlie Parks” Facebook profile of the person engaged to Al-Robaie. According to the warrant, police further observed that Parks matched the description of the woman seen on surveillance video.
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‘Robbery ambush’ bound over to grand jury
CPD Detective Keenan Carlton testified that Parks disclosed to him she knew a “light-skinned Black man” named Thomas that she would buy cocaine from. Carlton’s theory is that Parks set up Thomas Gray for a robbery and ambushed him.
“She (Parks) set the victim up to be robbed,” Carlton stated. “She was in communication with him (Gray). She was the one who had a connection to him where she used to buy drugs.”
Judge Sharon Massey Grimes weighed in before rendering her decision.
“The one thing that the court knows what we do have here, whether your positions differ on either side, is that we have a man who is dead. A family member. For whatever reason, whatever happened,” Grimes said.
She ruled that the $1 million bond for both defendants remain the same, and she bound the case over to the grand jury.
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