Ex-Teacher Gets 54 Years in Slaying

Former schoolteacher Daniel Allan Tuffree was sentenced to 54 years to life in prison Monday for fatally shooting one Simi Valley police officer and attempting to kill another during a gunfight a year-and-a-half ago.

The sentence effectively ensures that Tuffree, 50, will spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing Officer Michael Clark on Aug. 4, 1995, and firing at authorities who attempted to rescue him.

Superior Court Judge Allan L. Steele said the fact that Tuffree armed himself and would not allow police to reach the fallen officer weighed heavily in his decision, as did Tuffree’s demeanor in the months that followed.

“The defendant has absolutely no remorse for what he did,” Steele said.

As the judge spoke, Simi Valley Police Chief Randy Adams nodded approvingly and Clark’s widow, Jenifer, shook her fist in a sign of victory.

Adams and Clark were among half a dozen relatives and police officers who urged Steele to impose the stiffest possible sentence during an emotional two-hour hearing in Ventura County Superior Court.

Outside the courtroom, Adams and Clark expressed relief that the roller-coaster case, which ended in a mistrial in October and then a second-degree murder conviction in January, was finally over.

“I think it is going to help everyone to move on,” said Clark, standing beside her family.

“He got what he deserved,” added Frederick Clark, the officer’s father. “It makes me feel like there is some vindication.”

The Clark family and members of the Simi Valley Police Department all praised Steele’s ruling, saying it was time Tuffree paid for his crime.

“I was hoping he would never see the light of day again,” Adams said. “And it appears from the sentence, that will be the case.”

Tuffree was ordered to serve a minimum of 25 years to life in prison for murdering Clark, plus nine years for attempting to murder Officer Michael Pierce.

The judge imposed two additional 10-year sentences because Tuffree used a firearm during those crimes.

According to his attorneys, Tuffree must first serve 85% of the 29 years he received for the firearms and attempted murder convictions before he can begin to serve the 25 years to life.

That means the former Van Nuys High School teacher would not be eligible for parole until about 2046, and he would be 99 years old.

Deputy Public Defender Howard Asher said he was not surprised by the sentence, but disappointed.

“Steele thought what he did was right,” Asher said. “I disagree.”

During both trials, Asher argued that Tuffree was an emotionally troubled man who wanted to be left alone, but was drawn into a confrontation by police.

Authorities were sent to Tuffree’s home to check his well-being after reports that he was drinking alcohol, taking Valium and had stopped answering the phone.

When Clark confronted Tuffree outside his kitchen window, a gunfight broke out that left the 28-year-old officer mortally wounded and police unable to rescue him as Tuffree continued to shoot at them.

Asher said that Tuffree fired on Clark only after the officer shot at him--a theory that Steele agreed with. He found Tuffree guilty of second-degree murder--not first-degree murder as prosecutors wanted--during a court trial in January.

That ruling touched off a courtroom outburst as Jenifer Clark screamed at Tuffree and the fallen officer’s uncle lunged at him as he was led back to a holding cell.

No such outbursts occurred Monday, however, as about five Ventura County sheriff’s deputies carefully guarded the courtroom packed with Clark’s relatives and fellow police officers.

Before he imposed the sentences, Steele listened to several of the friends and relatives closest to Clark as they told what he meant to them and how their lives have been forever changed by his murder.

“He was my best friend, he was my sweetheart, he was my husband,” a tearful Jenifer Clark told the judge.

She begged him to impose a life sentence on behalf of her 2-year-old son, Bayley, who she said will grow up without a father.

“This is what he took away from my son, and this is what he took away from me,” Clark cried at one point, clutching a picture of her husband and then-infant child.

Michael Clark’s parents and his sister, Meredith, also addressed the judge.

Turning to Tuffree, who sat motionless in blue jail clothes, Meredith Clark told him in a voice filled with bitterness: “You have broken my heart and trampled my spirit.”

Adams told the judge that the innocence of the Simi Valley Police Department and the entire community was lost when Clark died. He was the first officer killed in the line of duty in the department’s 25-year history.

Sgt. Anthony Anzilotti, who responded with Clark and Pierce to Tuffree’s home the day of the shooting, described the agony and helplessness he felt watching Clark die.

“I will carry these emotional scars for the rest of my life,” he said.

Throughout the proceeding, Tuffree sat at the defense table with his shoulders slightly hunched, showing no emotion. He did not address the court or plead for mercy, although his sister, a childhood friend and his former wife of 18 years spoke on his behalf.

“I would like you to know about the Dan Tuffree I knew,” said Father Dan O’Hare, who grew up with Tuffree and attended parochial school with him.

In the final statement of the morning, he described Tuffree as a polite, well-mannered person who grew up in a churchgoing family.

“Your honor, Daniel Tuffree is not an animal, he is a person,” O’Hare argued. “Daniel Tuffree is not a nut, he is a human being.”