Death Penalty for Mastermind

Becoming the first person to be condemned in Orange County for two murders at which he was not present, William Clinton Clark was sentenced Monday to die for masterminding a botched robbery that resulted in one death, then ordering the execution of a witness in the case.

Judge John J. Ryan said that even though Clark did not commit either murder, he was responsible for both.

“I think the evidence in this case, while largely circumstantial, was absolutely overwhelming,” Ryan said.

Before imposing the death sentence, Ryan allowed the defendant to speak for more than an hour, then took the unusual step of responding directly to his remarks.

Clark, 44, of Los Angeles, insisted that he had “never hurt anybody” and lashed out at the prosecutor, police and witnesses in the case, all of whom he said lied to obtain a conviction.

“You don’t care,” Clark said at one point, looking prosecutor Rick King in the eye. “You want me to die.”

Clark, who is African American, also said that race played a part in his conviction on murder charges that he maintains were not proved in court.

“Let’s execute the black man,” Clark said. “No one cares. I’m a black man. You can do anything you want to do with me.”

The defendant said his trial was “total fantasy and so far removed from reality.”

At one point, King requested that Clark be sworn in so the prosecutor could challenge the defendant’s comments in a cross-examination. But the judge denied the request and let Clark complete his statement uninterrupted.

Ryan then responded, pointing out that, during Clark’s stinging remarks, the defendant failed to mention any of the incriminating evidence against him.

“Your fantasies about this case may well sell books, but I didn’t find them very convincing,” Ryan said.

In October, a jury found Clark guilty of planning the 1991 robbery of a Fountain Valley computer store. Kathy Lee, 49, was shot in the head during the holdup. He also was convicted of arranging the execution-style murder of Ardell Love Williams, 22, in 1994 after she agreed to testify against him.

Ryan acknowledged Monday that Clark was “disappointed” and “surprised” by Lee’s murder.

“That’s the problem with a takeover robbery,” Ryan said. “It’s foreseeable that somebody’s going to get hurt.”

Of victim Williams, who had been a friend of Clark’s, the judge said, “She violated Mr. Clark’s code: Don’t snitch. And for that reason, she was murdered.”

Williams’ mother sobbed and slumped in her seat as an emotional video highlighting her daughter’s life played to a silent courtroom. She also shook her head in disgust a few times during Clark’s lengthy remarks.

Angie Williams, 61, has suffered through the murders of two of her nine daughters. In 1985, Tina Williams was found bludgeoned to death in Culver City in a crime that was never solved.

“They say time goes by and it’s easier,” Angie Williams said Monday. “But no, it’s not.”

The victim’s older sister, Fay Williams Scott, said it was Tina Williams’ unsolved murder that led Ardell Williams to agree to testify against Clark. Scott said her sister wanted to help ease the grief of Kathy Lee’s family.

Lee, a secretary from Garden Grove, was killed when she arrived to pick up her teenage son from a CompUSA store in Fountain Valley. She arrived just as the robbery was taking place.

Lee’s husband, Peter, said the death penalty for Clark “is certainly justified.”

“He’s not a nice person,” said Lee, who had been married to his wife for 27 years. “I’m just thankful that six years of murder trials are finally over.”

He said his son, also named Peter, has taken his mother’s murder hard.

“He doesn’t come around very much,” the father said. “I guess he probably feels responsible for her death.”

Ardell Williams did not actually witness the shooting but had been with Clark about a month before the robbery when he cased the computer store. She learned about Lee’s murder from Clark’s younger brother and told authorities what she knew.

The triggerman in the computer store robbery and Clark’s younger brother both are serving life sentences without parole for Lee’s murder. Clark’s girlfriend, Antoinette Yancey, was convicted of murder last year and sentenced to life without parole for her role in the Williams slaying.

In May 1996, Clark was convicted of double first-degree murder. But the jury was unable to decide whether he should be executed, and the question was posed to a second jury this fall.

Clark’s trials were the first in recent Orange County history involving someone charged with killing a witness. King said the killing of a witness has “a significant impact on the system.”

“He made the decision to basically assassinate the witness that came forward who implicated him in the first murder,” King said. “He’s going to forfeit his life for those acts.”

Outside court, defense attorney Rob Harley said he challenged the credibility of witnesses in the case who he believed “were pushing the limits.”

“I am greatly saddened,” Harley said of the death sentence. “I felt we had a decent shot at getting a life sentence. He wasn’t the triggerman, and we obviously disagree with [the judge’s] decision. But we can’t do anything about it.”

Even though he had argued before two juries that Clark should be executed, King said he took no joy in the outcome of the case.

“It’s not a happy day,” the prosecutor said. “But it was a just thing. We were very thankful the judge in this case saw the evidence the same way the jury did.”