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Thomas Randolph: The Forensic Evidence Behind Sharon Causse’s Murder
Content note: This article discusses murder and domestic violence. Support resources are included below.
When Thomas Randolph called 911 on May 8, 2008, he said an intruder had shot his wife, Sharon Causse Randolph, and that he had killed the man responsible.
Two people were dead inside the couple’s Las Vegas home. Thomas portrayed himself as a husband who had survived a terrifying confrontation. But investigators found discrepancies between his explanation and the physical evidence.
A ski mask without blood or bullet holes. Shooting evidence concentrated in the garage. A recorded walkthrough that gave detectives specific movements and positions to examine.
The investigation would uncover a murder-for-hire case—and a history of earlier marriages that brought both new leads and difficult questions about what a jury should hear.
Who Was Sharon Causse?
Sharon was born in New York in 1950 and had lived in Nevada for more than three decades. A retired cosmetologist, she was a mother to her daughter, Colleen Beyer, and a grandmother.
She had been married before. She married William Metcalf in 1970 and Philippe Causse in 1978. Philippe died before she met Thomas.
Sharon connected with Thomas through Match.com in summer 2005. Their relationship progressed quickly, and Thomas moved into her Las Vegas home. They married during a trip to Mexico in 2006 and exchanged vows again in Las Vegas the following year.
Sharon became his sixth wife.
People close to her later described a troubled relationship. Colleen told a grand jury that Thomas repeatedly left and returned. Sharon’s friend Deirdra Marley described frequent calls to the salon, controlling behavior, and concerns about Sharon’s safety.
On the day she died, Sharon spoke with Colleen about problems in the marriage and the possibility of divorce. That evening, she and Thomas went out to dinner together.
What Thomas Said Happened
According to Thomas, Sharon entered the house while he parked in the garage. When he followed her inside, he found her lying face down in the hallway.
He said he retrieved a handgun and confronted a masked intruder, firing during an encounter that moved from the hallway into the garage. He also described firing two additional shots into the man’s head after he collapsed.
Sharon had sustained one gunshot wound to the head. Michael Miller, the alleged intruder, had been shot five times, including twice in the head.
Miller was someone Thomas knew. He had worked around the home, and the two men had spent time together just hours before the killings.
The Forensic Evidence That Raised Questions
A Ski Mask Without Blood or Bullet Holes
A black ski mask was found beside Miller’s body. It had neither blood nor bullet holes, despite the gunshot wounds to his head.
Investigators questioned whether Miller had been wearing it when those shots were fired. Prosecutors argued that Thomas placed the mask beside him to make the scene look like a home invasion.
The mask alone could not establish who removed or placed it. Its condition nevertheless became an important discrepancy in Thomas’s account.
Where the Shooting Evidence Was Found
Thomas described firing at Miller in the hallway before Miller moved into the garage. Investigators recovered one cartridge case in the hallway, while nearly all the cases were found in the garage. They also reported no blood in the hallway where Thomas said the shooting began.
Those findings prompted questions about the sequence he described. Investigators believed most of the shooting occurred in the garage.
Cartridge-case locations were one part of the reconstruction. Detectives considered them alongside blood evidence, recovered bullets, and the victims’ injuries.
Testing the Recorded Walkthrough
About a week after the killings, Thomas returned to the house for a videotaped walkthrough.
He showed detectives where he stood, where he said Miller approached him, and how the confrontation unfolded. This gave investigators a detailed account to compare with the scene.
Prosecutors later argued that the locations of the shooting evidence and the bullet trajectories conflicted with his explanation. Investigators developed a different reconstruction: Thomas had followed Miller toward the garage and ambushed him as he was leaving.
That reconstruction became part of the state’s broader case that the apparent burglary had been arranged.
Thomas Randolph and Michael Miller’s Relationship
Miller had recently moved to Las Vegas and was staying with relatives when he met Thomas. Thomas hired him for handyman work and also loaned him money.
Their contact was extensive. Testimony identified 283 calls between February and May 8, 2008. Relatives described Thomas repeatedly calling their home to reach Miller.
Phone records documented their contact; they did not reveal what the men discussed.
Investigators also interviewed Miller’s longtime friend, Judy Archie. She said Miller had told her that Thomas wanted him to kill his wife. Her account was significant to detectives, but she was recounting Miller’s statements rather than a conversation she personally heard Thomas have.
Prosecutors argued that Thomas recruited Miller to kill Sharon during a staged burglary in exchange for a share of her life-insurance proceeds. They said Thomas then killed Miller to conceal the arrangement.
The defense maintained that Miller acted independently, using his familiarity with the home to commit a burglary, and that Thomas shot him out of fear.
The Five Earlier Wives
As detectives investigated Thomas’s past, they learned about five earlier marriages:
- Kathryn “Kathy” Thomas: His first wife, who divorced him in 1983. She later described controlling and psychologically abusive behavior.
- Rebecca “Becky” Gault: His second wife, who died from a gunshot wound in Utah in 1986. Thomas was tried and acquitted of her murder in 1989. He separately pleaded guilty to witness tampering after trying to arrange the killing of a witness against him.
- Leona Stapleton: Their brief marriage ended in divorce. She died of cancer years afterward.
- Gayna Allmon: She left the marriage after an incident in which Thomas’s gun discharged nearby. She later testified that she believed he had been trying to kill her.
- Francis, also reported as Frances, Randolph: She died following heart surgery in 2004. Her daughter raised concerns about the circumstances; Thomas attributed the death to medical malpractice.
These histories gave investigators leads, but they were not interchangeable findings of murder. Thomas was acquitted in Becky’s case and was not convicted of killing Leona or Francis.
Two Trials and a Long Wait for Accountability
Thomas was arrested in January 2009. His first trial did not take place until 2017, when a jury convicted him of conspiracy to commit murder and the murders of Sharon and Miller. He received a death sentence.
In December 2020, the Nevada Supreme Court reversed the convictions because evidence concerning Becky’s death had been improperly admitted and created unfair prejudice.
At the 2023 retrial, prosecutors presented the Sharon and Miller case without that disputed evidence. On August 24, the jury again found Thomas guilty. In April 2024, he was sentenced to an aggregate 60 years to life.
On August 31, 2026, the Nevada Supreme Court affirmed the judgment, rejecting seven appellate challenges, including his speedy-trial claim and his argument that the walkthrough statements were involuntary.
Remembering Sharon and Michael
The Netflix documentary The Widower: ’Til Death Do Us Part has brought renewed attention to the case. For Forensic Tales, its central question is how investigators tested Thomas’s explanation against the scene.
Physical evidence did not tell the entire story on its own. Combined with phone records, financial evidence, and witness testimony, it helped prosecutors establish their case.
For the families, the proceedings represented years of waiting. Miller’s involvement in Sharon’s killing did not erase his status as a murder victim or his family’s loss.
And Sharon’s life deserves attention beyond Thomas’s history. She had raised her daughter, built friendships, worked as a hairstylist, and become a grandmother. Her loved ones remembered a kind, loving, and generous woman.
Her story belongs to her—not simply to the man who made her his sixth wife.
Listen to the full Forensic Tales episode for the investigation, the forensic evidence, and the long path through two trials.
Domestic Violence Support
If you are concerned about your relationship or someone you love, support is available.
In the United States, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline:
- Call: 1-800-799-7233
- Text: START to 88788
- Chat: thehotline.org
Support is free, confidential, and available 24/7. If your phone or internet activity may be monitored, consider reaching out from a safer device. If you are in immediate danger, call 911 if it is safe to do so.
Episode Sources & Additional Readings:
Nevada’s 2020 Supreme Court Decision
2026 appellate ruling and source documents