ST. LOUIS — The first thing you see when you walk into the home where the Bohannon family now lives is a shrine to its patriarch.
It houses a collection of police mementos, photos and other memorabilia donated to fallen St. Louis Police Officer Tamarris Bohannon’s family.
He was shot to death in the line of duty in August 2020.
“I did this for a reason, so that we have a space that we can come to me, me and the kids when we’re thinking of him,” said his widow, Alexis Bohannon. “All we have left are pictures now.”
His cremated remains enshrined in a glass sculpture serve as the centerpiece inside custom cabinetry that covers one of the walls. It’s shaped like a flame, and has a streak of blue that runs through the middle.
It’s eternal.
And it’s where Alexis Bohannon came to find strength during the trial for her husband’s killer earlier this month.
In an exclusive interview with 5 On Your Side, the widowed mother of three opened up about her reaction to the verdict and another tragedy that struck her family during the trial.
“It's eerie when you have to sit in a room with a person that murdered your husband,” Alexis Bohannon said.
And she did it for two weeks straight earlier this month.
Numerous officers broke down in tears on the stand, recalling that day.
How Thomas Kinworthy shot at a homeless man in an alley behind a Tower Grove South home before forcing its owners out at gunpoint.
How he barricaded himself in the home and opened fire on responding officers, killing Bohannon and injuring another officer.
And how even though it’s been four years for them, the emotion is still raw.
“Even my daughter said it to me, ‘Dad was a big deal,’” Alexis said of her now 14-year-old daughter, Tamara, who attended some of the trial.
The defense argued Kinworthy should be found not guilty by reason of insanity – due to a mental health diagnosis rooted in years of physical and mental abuse from his parents. Alexis Bohannon -- and prosecutors -- noted none of that alleged abuse was never verified by anyone but Kinworthy.
She grew irritated every time Kinworthy’s defense attorneys and expert mental health witness called the killer “Tommy” instead of Thomas.
Prosecutors pushed back, playing recordings of jailhouse phone calls the killer made to his loved ones. In one, he called Bohannon’s funeral a “(expletive) joke,” because it had so much media coverage that he would never get a fair trial.
In another call, he laughed about his arrest and said, “They broke my nose back straight,” of the injuries he received when officers stormed the house 12 hours after the standoff began.
And in another call, he joked about how some people were making a racial issue out of how he, a white man, killed a Black officer. He said he was going to have a T-shirt made for his daughter that read: MDLM, short for “My Daddy’s Life Matters” to mock the Black Lives Matter movement.
Alexis believes those calls showed jurors the real killer – not the “act” she says he put on for mental health experts who diagnosed him with schizoaffective disorder.
Listening to the mental health defense was also personal for Alexis Bohannon, who has worked as an advocate at various times throughout her life.
“I do believe in the power of therapy,” she said. “Which is why it infuriated me to have to listen to someone, literally try to take advantage of the system.
"Try to fake a diagnosis. A lot of people really struggle with mental health issues, and most of them don't kill people.”
Alexis Bohannon bolted out of the courtroom when the suspect’s ex-wife testified on his behalf and talked about how hard it is for her children to only be able to talk to their father on Facetime calls.
“I'm just thinking to myself, ‘At least they have a dad to talk to,’” she said. “He literally took the life of my kid’s father.
“The audacity right? I was just bawling my eyes out screaming and crying and like how dare she, how dare they try to give sympathy to him in all of this.”
With her in that moment – just like she always was – was her younger sister, Amber.
“I even made comments to her like ‘Amber, you don't have to be here every day, like go home, go rest,’ and she was like ‘No, that was my brother. I'm doing this for Tamarris.’”
Then, the night before the verdict, tragedy struck again.
“She had some ongoing heart problems, heart complications, and she unfortunately passed away,” Alexis Bohannon said. “I do find some solace in knowing that regardless of life circumstances, she was there for me when I needed her most.”
Alexis listened to the verdict without her -- guilty on all counts, including the first-degree murder of Tamarris Bohannon.
“It brought me great joy, that all 12 of those jurors saw things for what it was,” Alexis Bohannon said.
She said she’s been working on writing impact statements her three children, now ages 14, 11 and 10, want to read at Kinworthy’s sentencing hearing at the end of June.
And she’s also designed a T-shirt of her own. Hers will raise money for The Tamarris Bohannon Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit that helps undergrads pursue degrees in criminal justice, social work, human services and criminology. For more information click here.
The word “Guilty” stretches across the chest, with the date May 2, 2024 underneath it.
And she framed her favorite picture of her sister with her husband.
It now sits among the shelves inside the room where he is remembered – the room where she goes to find strength.