Feb. 16, 2024 2:30p
(WGTD)---The man who was identified last week as a 'person of interest' in a double-homicide at an Elkhorn bar Feb. 1 was charged Friday with two counts of 1st Degree Intentional Homicide and one count of attempted murder.
Bond for 57-year-old Thomas Routt was set at $2 million. Routt appeared in court via a video hook-up.
According to the criminal complaint, Routt admitted to investigators that he shot and killed the bartender and her husband at the Sports Page Barr in downtown Elkhorn just after midnight. Routt allegedly fled after cleaning out the cash register. He was arrested a few hours later and detained on a parole hold after unspecified "contraband" was found in his vehicle.
Routt had been released from prison in 2020 and went on to make a name for himself as an exemplary student at Gateway Technical College. He was one of the student speakers at his own graduation ceremony in May of last year.
The complaint includes statements from a woman who was the only other customer in the bar at the time besides Routt.
She told authorities that a man in his 50s or 60s had been playing a video game. He stood up, told the bartender, 37-year-old Gina Weingart, not to move, then shot her. The witness ran out the back and down an alley, saying she heard additional shots as she fled.
Routt, while purportedly admitting to the crimes, tells a slightly different story. He claimed that Weingardt threatened to call the police and tried to slap the gun out of his hand. That's when it went off, according to Routt, who then said he fired shots at the fleeing witness and fatally shot Weingart's husband, 33-year-old Emerson Weingart.
Routt said he went home, but then at some point left to dispose of the gun and ammunition.
After accomplishing that task, Routt was pulled over and arrested on a parole hold.
The Weingart's were both pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators found the gun believed to have been used in the crime in the dumpster where Routt said it would be.
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