|
|
| Murder Suspect Sentenced In Decade-Old Teen Killing |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 07/29/2002 |
|
A New York prison inmate was sentenced July 16 to 23 years to life as part a plea agreement for sodomizing and murdering a teen-age boy a decade ago. Jeffrey Clark, 34, admitted earlier this month in Madison County Court to killing 15-year-old Sean Googin, whose body was found weighted down by rocks in Cazenovia Lake southeast of Syracuse in July 1992. Clark will begin serving his sentence at the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility in two years after he completes a sentence for a separate sodomy charge. On July 16, Judge Biaggio DiStefano called him a predator and a pedophile, who preyed on young, innocent children. ''You are every parent's nightmare. You are society's worst fear,'' DiStefano said. ''What you did that night is the very reason the death penalty exists today. ... It is this court's hope that you never walk out of prison.'' Clark's attorney said the offender was remorseful, that he never meant to kill Sean Googin and he pleaded guilty to spare the family a trial. Over the years since, police chased more than 2,000 leads and checked the DNA of at least a half-dozen suspects, including several carnival workers who were in the village the weekend of the murder. In late 1999, Clark was arrested and convicted of sodomizing a 14-year-old boy in Oneida. As required by law, a blood sample was obtained from Clark for the DNA databank, and it matched his DNA to biological samples recovered by forensic investigators at the scene of Googin's murder. Although Clark suffers from mental illness and is borderline retarded, DiStefano ruled in April that he was fit to stand trial for the slaying. |
MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
|
Comments:
No comments have been posted for this article.
Login to let us know what you think