Clark Gets Death Penalty in Murder by Terri Rimmer - originally published by Nassau County Record, 1991 under my maiden name

Tern Persico

Record Staff Reporter

Yulee resident Ronald Wayne Clark, 22, convicted for first-degree premeditated murder Nov. 2, was sentenced to death Dec. 13 at the Nassau County Courthouse.

Judge Henry Adams granted the death penalty for the first time in his 11 years as a judge on the Fourth Circuit Court.

Clark was convicted on the murder charge for the October 1989 murder of transient Charles McElroy Carter, 37. A jury found Clark shot Carter twice, once in the chest and once in the face with a 12-gauge single-barrel shotgun.

Prosecuters said Clark shot Carter S after driving with two friends to an

 abandoned area on County Road 108 by the McQueen Swamp Hunting Club following a night of drinking. Teti­mony showed that Clark shot Carter in the chest, reloaded the gun, leaned over him and shot him again in the head.

The two friends, Brian Corbitt and David Hatch, who were present at the

 shooting were not charged with par­ticipating in the murder.

Prosecutors said Clark killed Car­ter to get the man’s job on a fishing boat.

According to the prosecution, af­ter killing Carter, Clark pulled Car­ter’s body into a ditch and took $11 and his cowboy boots. Carter’s body

was found the next day by two hunt­ers.

According to prosecution, Granville Burgess, Adams had “a hard time” making the decision to give Clark the death sentence. A jury voted 10-2 in favor of the death penalty Nov. 20.

In a prepared statement, Adams said he found that aggravating circum­stances warranted the death sentence and that the murder was committed while Clark was engaged in robbery. Adams added that the murder was committed for gain, was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel and was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner.

“Basically the judge fulfilled his duty. This guy (Clark) was diagnosed as a potential murderer in 1986,” said Burgess. “I felt personally he (Adams) was going to have a hard time dealing with the facts of the case. I know he (Adams) had personal reservations about it.”

Clark had no reaction to the sen­tence when Adams issued the death sentence.

“He (Clark) had been in what looked like a daze most of the day,” said. Burgess. “The man appears to enjoy killing people.”

Burgess said there were no mitigat­ing circumstances concerning the case that might influence Adams to impose a lighter sentence.

Burgess said Clark’s age was not a mitigating circumstance.

Clark’s defense attorney, Henry Davis, argued that Clark’s history of alcohol abuse, child sexual abuse, and family problems were the cause of his disturbance and his behavior. Adams said Clark was a “disturbed” person, but was able to understand the act he committed.

Adams also said Clark was not affected by the alcohol he consumed the night of the murder to the extent that his ability to appreciate “the crimi­nality of his conduct was substantially impaired.”

Clark faces murder charges in Duval County in a separate case in­volving the January killing of 38-year-old Ronald Willis of Yulee. He is also facing a count of armed robbery in conjunction with that case.

Nassau County Record, Ronald Clark trial, 4—91

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