Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces a jury has returned a GUILTY verdict in the murder trial of 32-year-old Erik Donaldson for the shooting death of his friend in 2008. 

The panel reached the decision in just over eight hours of deliberations following a week-long trial before Erie County Judge Thomas P. Franczyk. 

The jury convicted Donaldson of Murder in the Second Degree for fatally shooting his friend, 22-year-old Christian Thomas of Buffalo, whose body was found in an area between two houses on Montana Street on April 8, 2008. 

Thomas, who had been missing since December 30, 2007, had been shot in the face and the back. 

Donaldson faces 25 years to life in prison when he is sentenced by Judge Franczyk on September 13, 2017 at 9:30 a.m. 

“The Buffalo Police Department’s Homicide Detectives pursued this investigation for several years until they found the killer,” says DA Flynn. “This is another example of how murder cases are never closed until justice is served.” 

DA Flynn commends Buffalo Police Homicide Detectives Scott Malec, Brian Ross and Mark White for their outstanding investigative work. 

Assistant District Attorney John Patrick Feroleto of the DA’s Homicide Bureau and Assistant District Attorney Nathanael C. Kapperman prosecuted the case.