Enraged live-in lover who shot to death 20 y.o.gal-pal & 4 other ppl,3 of them children,in AR rampage of last yr,gets legal murder sentence
Joe1orbit
This news item will get posted to all THREE of my chosen venues, my Mailing
List, alt.true-crime, AND alt.activism.death-penalty, since it involves a MASS
murderer who has had a legal murder sentence imposed upon him. Clay scores a
triple-header, since it looks to me like this news item has not been posted to
either of the three forums.
Over in Arkansas, 28 year old Clay King Smith has indeed, sadly and of course
unjustifiably, been sentenced to be legally murdered by the society that
created him. The bigoted and perverse jury only deliberated for a single hour,
before they all agreed to impose legal murder upon their moral superior.
Clay really hasn't gotten much media attention at all, considering the fact
that he is a genuine MASS murderer. It was last year that Clay went on a
shooting rampage inside of a mobile home, killing a family of FIVE, three of
them children, aged 3, 5, and 12. Actually, the family unit only consisted of 4
people, and the 12 year old victim was a friend of the family who was staying
at the trailer that night. Clay was put on trial on five counts of 1st degree
murder, found Guilty Thursday, and sentenced to be legally murdered yesterday.
He was NOT biologically related to ANY of his victims, but was LIVING in the
trailer, as a live-in lover to 20 year old Misty Erwin.
In his rampage he shot Misty to death, he killed her 24 year old cousin, the
cousin's two small child-slaves, and the 12 year old family friend, giving him
a total of FIVE victims, all successfully killed. Not too shabby at all, as far
as family massacres go. Clay batted a perfect score, killing all 5 of his
targeted victims.
After committing this massacre in March of last year, Clay fled the trailer,
but was tracked down & arrested by cops the next day, but NOT very easily. He
did try to resist violently, and was shot in the arm by pursuing cops. He told
them that he had been using drugs the previous day, and in a VERY cool quote,
told them: "I sent three of them to heaven, but I don't know where the hell the
other two will go." Ha! He probably meant that he was trying to send the 3
CHILDREN to heaven, but considered 20 year old Misty and her cousin to be "bad"
people who would more likely end up in hell. A cool quote, especially how Clay
got in a double entendre in saying: I don't know where the HELL the other 2
will go". Of course the Superiors among us know that there is NO afterlife, no
heaven, hell, or any existence for all of eternity upon death.
A bloodthirsty relative tells us that she is glad that Clay will be legally
murdered, because: "I was afraid he was going to do it again." How RIDICULOUS!
The odds of any maximum security prison inmate escaping, getting ahold of a
gun, and deciding to commit a second massacre, are astronomically low. And of
course the odds of him targeting any specific relative of Misty's are virtually
non-existent. But this relative, unable to admit to her own HOMICIDAL desires,
deludes herself into believing this insane notion that the reason she is happy
about Clay's pending legal murder, is because she was "afraid he would do it
again." It is so pathetic, the FALSE and perverse rationalizations that you
humans come up with to DELUDE yourselves into believing that you are morally
superior to a person like clay, a societal victim-creation, when the fact of
the matter is that you are morally INFERIOR to him.
One reason why Clay's massacre has gotten so LITTLE media attention, is pure
bad luck. On the SAME DAY that the 5 victims were found shot to death in the
trailer, two botys, aged 11 and 13, committed their Jonesboro school shooting
massacre, killing 5 students and a teacher. Both incidents occured in AR, and
you guessed it, the media feeding frenzy totally ran towards the school
massacre that 11 year old Andrew Golden and 13 year old itchell Johnson
committed, thus ROBBING Clay of the media coverage that he absolutely deserved
to receive.
Take care, JOE
The following appears courtesy of yesterday's Reuters news wire:
Arkansas killer of five condemned to death
March 19, 1999
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) - A jury deliberated for only an hour before
sentencing an Arkansas man to death Thursday night for the murders a year ago
of five people, including three children.
The same jury earlier Thursday found Clay King Smith, 28, guilty of five counts
of capital felony murder.
"It's an incredible relief, knowing that they gave him the death penalty," said
Tabitha Bunting, whose sister, Misty Erwin, 20, lived with Smith and was among
his victims.
"I was afraid he was going to do it again," Bunting said, referring to Smith.
The dead also included Erwin's 24-year-old cousin and her two children, aged
five and three, and a 12-year-old girl who was a family friend.
All five were shot to death at a mobile home in the Jefferson community, about
45 miles southeast of Little Rock. A detective who arrested Smith last March
26, the day after the murders, testified that Smith had told him he had been
using drugs on the day of the killings.
The slayings were overshadowed in the news media by the fatal shooting of four
young students and a teacher at Jonesboro, Arkansas, which occurred on the same
day that the bodies of the five victims in the mobile home shooting were
discovered.
-------------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of yesterday's Reuters news wire:
Killer Of Five Sentenced To Die
March 19, 1999
(JEFFERSON COUNTY) -- A man found guilty of murdering five people has been
sentenced to death by lethal injection. Three children were among Clay Smith's
victims. Before jurors left to deliberate his sentence, Clay told them he
agreed that the shootings were cold blooded, but insisted he didn't do it. The
statement goes directly against testimony given by a deputy who said Smith told
him he "sent three of them to heaven, but didn't know where the hell the other
two would go." The deputy also said Smith admitted to the killings but blamed
them on his being high on drugs at the time.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 3/19/99 online edition of The Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette newspaper:
Defense calls no witnesses; killer of 5 to die, jury says
EMMETT GEORGE
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
PINE BLUFF -- Clay King Smith was sentenced to die by lethal injection after a
jury found him guilty Thursday of five counts of capital murder.
Outside the courtroom, Brenda Cox Bratton, the mother of victim Samantha
Rhodes, told reporters, "He may have sent my daughter to heaven, but today the
state sent him to hell."
Bratton was referring to testimony Wednesday in which Jay Moser, an
investigator with the Jefferson County sheriff's office, said Smith told him
during a standoff with officers that "I sent three of them to heaven. I don't
know where in the hell the other two went."
It took the jury of eight women and four men about an hour to decide the
fate of Smith, 28, formerly of 3105 Pine Road. The trial lasted four days at
the Jefferson County Courthouse.
Relatives of the victims wept openly as Circuit Court Judge H.A. Taylor
read the sentence. Extra deputies packed the courtroom Thursday to prevent
outbursts and to keep order.
Last year, Smith was charged in the March 25, 1998, deaths of his
girlfriend, Misty Erwin, 20, who lived with him in a mobile home near
Jefferson; Erwin's cousin, Shelly Sorg, 24, of Pine Bluff; Sorg's children,
Taylor Nicole Sorg, 3, and Sean Michael Sorg, 5; and family friend Samantha,
12, also of Pine Bluff.
Deputies found the victims in Smith's two-bedroom home after relatives
filed missing persons reports with the sheriff's office. All of the victims had
been shot multiple times in the head except for Taylor Sorg, who was killed by
a single gunshot wound in the face, an expert from the state Crime Laboratory
in Little Rock testified Wednesday.
Smith was shot in the right arm by an Arkansas State Police officer and
arrested March 26, 1998, at his brother's residence near Star City.
Walt Chavis, an El Dorado police officer and Smith's brother, was brought
to the scene to talk Smith into surrendering. After the verdict Thursday,
Chavis said "it hasn't been easy. It's just something you have to bear." Smith
is the youngest of six brothers, Chavis said.
During closing remarks, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Kim Bridgforth said,
"There is nothing more deliberate than when you walk up to a 5-year-old child
and shoot him in the head."
Smith's attorney, Dale Adams of Little Rock, pointed to "gaps in evidence,
the fact that cigarette butts, a whiskey bottle and blood splatters on the
walls and ceiling and a fingerprint at the front door were not sent to the
crime lab for analysis.
"They zoomed in on him and didn't consider anybody else," Adams said,
adding that Shelly Sorg's husband, who had threatened her three times, "was
never eliminated as a suspect."
Adams said if jurors had reasonable doubt, they could opt for a lesser
sentence of first or second-degree murder or acquittal.
On Thursday morning, Adams and Smith's other attorney, Maxie Kizer of Pine
Bluff, began the day by resting their case without calling a single witness
after Smith declared that he wanted to serve as his own attorney.
The jury went out at 11:10 a.m. to deliberate Smith's guilt or innocence.
While they were out, Smith's attorneys announced that Smith did not want them
to introduce any mitigating circumstances during the penalty phase of the
trial.
Taylor asked Smith if he knew he had a constitutional right to offer such
evidence to the jury. He also asked Smith if he was under the influence of any
drug, alcohol or had a mental disease that would prompt him to make such a
decision.
"Do you realize the consequences?" Taylor asked.
"Yes," Smith responded.
"Do you want to share with the court why you are doing this?"
"No," Smith responded.
Kizer then summarized the evidence he said he would have presented if Smith
had let him, which included the fact that Smith had no significant criminal
history and had attended Central Bible College in Springfield, Mo., for three
years.
He said Smith had become a youth minister but had had recurring drug
problems since he was 12 years old.
The jury returned about 12:30 p.m. and delivered their guilty verdict on
all five counts.
When the jurors returned from lunch at 2 p.m. to begin deliberating the
penalty phase, Taylor told them of Smith's decision. Smith then stood before
them and made a rambling statement.
"I am not guilty," Smith said. "You've accused me of killing the most loved
person in my life, my fiancee [Misty Erwin]. While I may not agree with the
jury's verdict, you must respect it."
Prosecuting Attorney Steve Dalrymple objected, and Taylor admonished Smith
to confine his comments to the penalty phase of the trial.
Smith said he had played with one of the child victims and also tried to
get the prosecutors to project a photograph of Misty Erwin onto a monitor for
the jurors, which drew another objection from Dalrymple.
After a short conference between the attorneys, Smith stood back up and
told the jury, "I respect your decision. You found me guilty of killing Misty
and four other people. I've lost my life anyway."
Dalrymple told the jury that Smith "still stands in denial. ... There are
no mitigating circumstances. The state has asked for the death penalty, and we
do not do that lightly."
The jury went back out at 2:59 p.m. to deliberate Smith's sentence. Jurors
returned about 4 p.m. with a recommendation that he be put to death.
Taylor did not set an execution date.
This article was published on Friday, March 19, 1999
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 3/18/99 online edition of The Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette newspaper:
Trial begins in deaths of 5; investigators detail scene
EMMETT GEORGE
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
PINE BLUFF -- Clay King Smith's attorneys battled unsuccessfully Wednesday to
keep statements Smith made to officers about killing five people from the jury.
After a short hearing, Circuit Judge H.A. Taylor of Pine Bluff ruled that
the Jefferson County Circuit Court jury of eight women and four men could hear
the testimony during the first day of Smith's trial on five counts of capital
murder.
During a tense standoff with law enforcement officers on March 26, 1998,
Smith shouted at officers, "I sent three of them to heaven. I don't know where
the hell the other two went," investigator Jay Moser of the Jefferson County
sheriff's office testified Wednesday.
"I wish I could take a couple of days back. I was on drugs, I was high,"
Moser said Smith yelled at the officers, who had chased him to his brother's
hunting camp on County Road 29 near Star City.
"He said, 'Be a man, just shoot me,' tapping his hand on his chest," Moser
said.
Smith held a .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle throughout the 55-minute
ordeal, which ended when an Arkansas State Police officer shot Smith in the
right arm. As Smith tumbled to the ground, deputies from Jefferson and Lincoln
counties converged on him and disarmed him.
The day before Smith's arrest, Jefferson County sheriff's deputies found
five bodies, including three children, in a mobile home at 3105 Pinto Road near
Jefferson in the northern part of the county.
Smith, 28, had shared the mobile home with his girlfriend, Misty Erwin, 20,
who was one of the victims. Also dead were Erwin's cousin, Shelly Sorg, 24, of
Pine Bluff; Sorg's two children, Sean Michael Sorg, 5, and Taylor Nicole Sorg,
3; and family friend Samantha Rhodes, 12, also of Pine Bluff.
If convicted, Smith could get life in prison without parole or death by
injection.
In trying to keep the statements from the jury, Smith's attorney, Dale
Adams of Pine Bluff, called Smith to the witness stand Wednesday. Under
questioning, Smith said the officers yelled as they pursued him, "We know it's
the drugs, Clay. We know you did it."
Smith said he did not believe the officers when they told him they had
brought his brother, Walt Chavis, an El Dorado police officer, to the scene to
try to talk him into surrendering.
"Did he [Moser] try to convince you that no one would get hurt if you put
the gun down?" Prosecuting Attorney Steve Dalrymple asked. "Yes, he said he
wouldn't put the handcuffs on me," Smith responded.
Adams asked Moser if Smith ever threatened the officers with the rifle by
pointing it directly at them. Moser said Smith never pointed the weapon at the
officers, but "kind of leaned on it."
On Wednesday morning, the jury got its first look at the bloody photographs
taken at the crime scene. Several family members dashed from the courtroom in
tears when the enlarged photos were revealed. Brenda Cox, Samantha Rhodes'
mother, sat quietly clutching a small blue stuffed elephant she kept to
remember her daughter.
Investigators said the victims were found in a bedroom and the living room
of the two-bedroom mobile home.
Charles Paul Kokes, an assistant medical examiner with the state Crime
Laboratory in Little Rock, testified that all of the victims except Taylor Sorg
died from multiple gunshot wounds. Taylor Sorg was killed by a single shot to
the face, Kokes said.
The other victims were shot in the head, arm and upper body, and some of
them were shot at close range, Kokes said.
Ronald Andrejack of the Crime Laboratory testified that bullets removed
from the victims matched the rifle deputies recovered from Smith. He also said
ballistic matches were obtained with most of the eleven shell casings recovered
from the mobile home.
At the time of the crime, family members told a reporter that Smith had
repeatedly abused Erwin, but she would not leave him.
Cpl. Calvin Terry of the Jefferson County sheriff's office testified that
he was called to the residence on March 23, 1998, to help Erwin remove her
belongings from the mobile home. When he arrived, Terry said he also found
Smith.
"He began to talk nice," Terry said. "He [Smith] said she didn't have to
leave. He said he would leave." Terry said he advised Erwin to go to a women's
shelter in Pine Bluff, but Erwin changed her mind about leaving.
Sandra Haynes, a neighbor who lives across the street, said she saw Smith
leave the mobile home through the front door shortly after midnight on March
24. She said Smith stared at her for "a good ten seconds" before getting in his
car and driving off.
Prosecutors noted that deputies reported that when they arrived at the
mobile home about 10:30 p.m. March 25, the front door was barricaded by
furniture.
Deputy Andy Hoots said he entered through the back door of the home with
Mark Lackey, the landlord. Lackey had called the sheriff's office after he
entered the home and reportedly saw blood stains on the carpet.
Moser, who was the lead investigator in the case, said Jefferson County
Coroner Holly Watkins-Sperry indicated to him that the victims had been dead 22
to 36 hours when they were found.
Sheriff's office investigator Steve Moreau said as he entered the mobile
home with Moser shortly after 11 p.m., officers first found the blood-soaked
bodies of Rhodes and Sean Sorg in the west bedroom near the back of the
residence and found the other victims in the living room. Misty Erwin was
slumped over in a recliner and Taylor Sorg and Shelly Sorg were found on a
couch, covered with bedding.
After testimony from the Crime Laboratory employees, the state rested its
case.
The trial will resume at 9 a.m. today when the defense begins to present
its case.
This article was published on Thursday, March 18, 1999
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S. Lee Ghost
Just like he gave his victims: NO MERCY! Too bad he isn't in Texas, we'd
execute him with NO qualms. Wouldn't even be a blink... That's the way it
should be.
SL Ghost
Joe1orbit <joe1...@aol.com> wrote in message
19990320111556...@ng102.aol.com...
ffiel...@gmail.com
robinnee...@gmail.com
kpar...@gmail.com
keepe...@gmail.com
> I know that the death penalty must have been such a heavy burden for Clay's loved ones. I completely understand, and it would be expected, as no matter what he did, they loved him.
I can honestly say, if this had been my script, and my own son had been sentenced to die for killing another human...Wow! How breathtaking of an ordeal that would be! I hope that I could know in my heart, that the sentence he received was just. As this has not happened, I cannot begin to place myself in an imaginary circumstance, because of my unconditional love for my son.
My heart definitely hurts for the family of the victims. How can I not just as much mourn with the loved ones of Clay?