Dallas Man Charged With Test Drive Murder

Mentally Ill "Anti-Christ" Allegedly Killed A Car Salesman By Forcing Him Out Of A Moving Truck

(CBS/AP)  A car salesman was pushed or fell to his death along a highway as he went on a test-drive with a customer, authorities said. A 42-year-old man with a history of mental illness was charged with murder.

Witnesses told police that salesman John Phinney was pushed or fell from the passenger side of the pickup truck during the test drive Tuesday evening, and the vehicle slowed down but did not stop.

James Thorpe, 42, was arrested later Tuesday and was being held on $3 million bond at a Dallas County jail.

In jailhouse interviews with reporters, Thorpe denied pushing Phinney out of the vehicle. The Dallas Morning News said Thorpe referred to himself as the "anti-Christ" and claimed Phinney got angry and jumped out after Thorpe told him "to repent if he wanted to save his soul."

According to an affidavit in Thorpe's divorce records, he was involved in a similar incident once before. Though no one was killed that time, reports CBS station KTVT in Dallas. In 2000, Thorpe was test-driving a GMC Yukon when he asked the salesman to get out, according to the affidavit. Thorpe crashed the SUV into another vehicle at high speed, then went to a Hooters restaurant in Irving. Irving police used pepper spray to subdue and arrest him at the restaurant, KTVT reports.

The Manuel Dodge dealership in suburban Richardson had contacted police after Phinney, 53, didn't return from the test drive.

"He never had any ill will towards anybody. He was the nicest guy in the world," sales manager Aaron Miller said.

Meanwhile, a woman who knows Thorpe also contacted police Tuesday evening. She said she had dropped him off at the dealership for the test drive, and he later contacted her and told her he had "got the truck" and was "running from the law."

Thorpe was arrested without any resistance later in the evening at a business where he had recently worked, police said.

Thorpe, a divorced father of six, has an arrest record for trespass and other charges, and KTVT reported he had spent time in two state mental hospitals.

During an interview Wednesday with WFAA-TV, Thorpe slammed down a phone and shouted obscenities, then shoved and scuffled with two guards as he left the room, the station reported.

[airboatboy1]

Great story. Doesn''t even say what kind of deal he got on the truck.

[blackyowe]

Sounds like Thorpe is one very mentally ill waco with a very evil mind. Poor John Phinney and his family.

[stopsocialis]

Hey tuckerndfw, is this story about you? You live in Dallas, right?