The murder trial of Charles Arnett Stevens and Richard Clark. From my journal...
2/25/93
On the morning of February 24th, we all assembled in the jury room and trooped down the stairs. I'd like to digress here momentarily to describe this up-and-down-the-stairs ritual: In the morning, one of our group (jury) is required to bring some sort of breakfast. Usually it is a type of pastry, but we've had bagels and variety breads as well. I've come to anticipate having breakfast now, and I'm sure my waistline will soon show it. After all, we don't really do much besides sit around all day listening. When we have our breaks, things get pretty noisy. There are a few men on the jury who are quite loud when they speak. When everybody gets going it can be pretty boisterous.
There is a buzzer system that serves as our communications link with the deputy sheriff down in the courtroom. His name's Peter, like my son, and we all appreciate his friendly manner. He makes coffee and transmits our requests and questions to the judge. When we are all present before session, somebody in the jury room pushes a button to indicate such. He will give us a single return buzz to acknowledge. When he buzzes twice, we all rise and assemble in numerical order at the head of the steps that lead down from the sixth floor to the fifth floor courtroom. When we have been dismissed for a recess, we all rise and file up the stairs. For some reason, due I suppose to my position on the steps, I relay the information from the head of the stairs to Peter that the door at the top is either open or closed. It has become mundane almost to the point of screaming routine. "Is the door open?" By the time this thing is over I won't want to hear that phrase ever again!
Whew...We strolled into the court and took our seats on Wednesday morning. The judge asked Mr. Selvin if he had anything further, to which he said: "Mr. Stevens' defense rests. For now."
Say what?
We all looked at each other. This wasn't really what we were expecting. Well, the prosecution once reopened its case, perhaps that would happen here, too. A strange and wonderful thing is this system. With that, Judge McGuinnis asked Mr. Zimmer if he would present his case for defendant Clark.
All along this Zimmer fellow has been somewhat facetious, asking rather pointless questions. With his opening statement, which lasts well over an hour, he discusses the circumstances of Richard Clark being charged with murder based on his confession. He said that we could go into a far-reaching discussion about whether a person who killed another under duress could be considered guilty of murder. He spoke about the techniques the police use to gather information during interrogations, never once claiming that the methods were truly improper or coercive. He claimed that Mr. Clark had been mentally and physically abused as a child, and that the mind-set Richard had had contributed to his completely fabricated confession. He said that we would hear testimony from a clinical psychologist verifying a mental condition that made the subject conducive to authority figures. He told them what he thought they wanted to hear, filling in the blanks as they were "cued" into him until he came up with a story that implicated himself as the shooter in a crime he was nowhere near.
Then Mr. Zimmer called none other than Richard James Clark, jr. to the stand in his own defense. Other than the one edited tape we had heard earlier in the people's case, no one had heard his voice. Now it was to be almost all we were to hear. The primary focus was on the chronology of the weekend Leslie Noyers died. He claims to have helped Charlie, or TC as he was known on the street, steal the tan Mazda RX7 on Friday night 3/31/89. He took the car home, the "first sports car stolen for me", that night and parked it next to his house. Saturday he drilled in Fairfield (CA) with the Army National Guard. Sunday, same thing. Sunday night he drove around with TC, drank some beer and went home in the RX7. Monday morning he got up late and drove the car to Mosswood Park in Oakland to abandon it.
What's wrong with this picture?
Leslie Noyers was killed on Monday morning at about 1:45 AM. The RX7 was in the impound lot at OPD by Monday morning. I'm writing this part two days later and I have to remember that I don't know just exactly what has really happened that night. Clark was picked up in Monterrey County jail after being held on a supposed bench warrant for car theft. Sergeant Roth and Sergeant Chenault escorted him to OPD and into an interrogation room. They started talking to him at about 1:30 in the afternoon and didn't stop until just after midnight. In the course of questioning, Richard Clark told many stories. He claimed then, and still does, that at first all he did abandon the RX7 on Monday morning. The officers challenged that, and the story began to change. Now he was with TC, Mario, a fictional character named Chuck, and they were all rifling through cars on Chetwood. The two women in the story approach TC and Chuck as Clark and Mario "hid down" behind cars. He sees TC and Leslie Noyers argue and he shoots her, standing right in front of her. Now he's challenged again, now the story has just TC and himself in it. He holds Noyers near the back of the RX7 while Charlie shoots her after an argument. Nope, the sergeants aren't buying that either. They sketch out a small diagram of the car, showing him where the casing were found in the car and where the body was found. Now he says he's in the car, he gets a little confused, he's with other people or he's not. Now he's just rambling and the investigators have to leave the room to let him calm down.
While Richard is being questioned, he starts volunteering information about another incident. This is something that takes all of us on the jury by surprise, as I expect Mr. Burr knew it would. Richard started telling them about a night when the two of them were out drinking, talking about stealing some cars. They went over to the south side of the I-580 freeway, eventually settling on an Olds 98, '79 model or so. They drove around, getting beer and later some burgers. Just goofin' around in a stolen car. After getting pretty drunk, Clark asks TC for a ride home. They get on the freeway at Park Blvd., and as they are entering the ramp TC starts rocking back and forth, saying "I got to shoot somebody". He unzips his jacket, revealing the Desert Eagle, and puts the gun in his lap. Richard says something to him about "What you talking about, man?" as they start to pull up next to a dark-colored car, a Ford Granada, driven by a black man. TC opens his window and picks up the gun. Richard says "Hey man, don't kill him. He's a brother, you don't want to do this". Stevens rolls up the window and keeps driving. He sees a white Mustang and pulls up beside it, matching its speed. As he opens the window Clark says "Hey man, you gonna shoot that white woman?" Stevens says "No, that's a man." Clark says "No, it's a..." Stevens fires one shot into the Mustang, shattering the passenger window and causing the car to "wobble" in its lane. Stevens turns to look at Clark, who is by his own testimony shocked by what's just happened. All he can think of to say is "Can I have one of those beers in the back?" Stevens says "Yeah", then they drive to TC's to drop him off, where Clark says TC threatened to harm him if he told anyone about the shooting.
Then Clark drives home, unloads the beer and goes out to Antioch to see a friend. The next day it seems the police have found the Olds 98 in Antioch and Clark has to get home somehow. When he does he makes sure to find out about the shooting on TV after telling his Mom and sisters about it. He talks to TC on the phone, asking him "Did you see on the television about last night?" TC is excited, agitated. That's pretty much the gist of this tape. Little side comment intrigue me here. I've heard a couple of the other tapes, listened to the tone of his voice while he rambled about different versions of the Noyers incident. While he related the Rochon killing he was steady, consistent, calm. While he described the chronology of Lori Rochon's murder he kept describing the feel of the draft of air when TC opened the window before shooting her. When he had finished the account, the sergeants summarized briefly and Richard seemed to get a little detached, saying the word "stupid..." in a sad, regretful way.
This would not be the last time I would hear him say this.
He also told them that he had been in the 27th and West neighborhood the afternoon before Laquann Sloan's murder. Nothing more on that now but I'm sure we'll hear more later.
Thursday ended with Mr. Burr questioning Richard Clark about various aspects of his taped statements. The defense wants us to believe that Clark was badgered and bullied into admitting his role in the killing of Leslie Noyers. We are expected to see that Richard did this in order to "give them what they wanted to hear" , to tell them stories so absurd, (his contention) that they will know something is wrong and stop questioning him. He thinks that TC will state that Clark wasn't even there, even though Clark has just implicated him in two murders.
(An aside here: I'm watching Judgment at Nuremberg. An interesting note while jotting down thoughts about a murder trial of lesser scale)
And the beat goes on.
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