Man confesses to double murder in exchange for chicken dinner!
A Richmond man who agreed to confess to a double killing as soon as police brought him a chicken dinner now faces 40 years to life in prison for the Christmas Eve shootings.
Jamal Louis Clemons, 27, pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of first-degree murder of Robin Clapp and Edward Lee Bowmer Jr. — two days after a judge denied a defense motion to have Clemons' confession thrown out.
"We're just so devastated," said Gail Otey, the mother of Bowmer's two children, after Wednesday's hearing. "We'll never get over it."
A transcript of Clemons' confession to Richmond investigators on Dec. 26 shows that Clemons waited anxiously for his meal and repeatedly asked why it was taking so long. He promised police detectives he would tell them everything they wanted to know as soon as the food arrived.
After police brought him a meal from Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken, Clemons told them in graphic detail how he fatally shot Clapp, 56, and Bowmer, 60, in a robbery at Bowmer's home in the 800 block of North 35th Street in the East End.
Clemons also described how he left the scene in another woman's vehicle with a 2-year-old boy who had been left in the back seat. The child was unharmed.
Otey praised the handling of the case by authorities but said she believes Clemons should die.
"I think he deserves the needle," she said. "He's straight demon."
Prosecutors said they will ask a judge at a sentencing hearing Aug. 27 to order a life sentence, the maximum punishment for first-degree murder. Authorities said they did not charge Clemons with capital murder because he gave a full confession, expressed remorse to the victims' families and because he didn't hurt the 2-year-old child.
Clemons apologized for the killings during the police interview on Dec. 26 and said he deserved the death penalty.
"If you take a person life, man, the Bible say your life should be took," Clemons told detectives. "Eye for a eye. Tooth for a tooth. That was in the beginning. Know what I'm saying?"
In exchange for Clemons' plea to the murder charges, prosecutors withdrew all other charges, including an abduction charge, three counts of robbery and six related firearm charges.
Clemons' attorney, Jacqueline M. Ford, declined to comment after the hearing.
In his confession, Clemons told Richmond police Detectives David Burt and Angela Smith that he was drunk on "black gin" and had smoked crack before he killed Clapp and Bowmer. He said he wanted to steal money and that he was so eager to get some cash that he snapped and shot Clapp in the face.
Clemons said he grabbed Bowmer and told him to open a safe. Clemons believed Bowmer had "10 stacks," or $10,000, inside the safe, said prosecutor Christopher Jones.
Clemons told police that Bowmer was trying to open the safe but was having trouble and that Clemons struck him with the gun.
Clemons said during the interview that his mother, Robin Mines, appeared at the home at some point but that he told her to leave and she did. Then he said another woman, a friend of Clapp's, arrived and came inside the house, leaving her son in the back seat of a car outside.
The woman saw Clapp's body and begged Clemons not to kill her, too. Clemons said he shot Bowmer twice and that he stopped moving.
"The alcohol talking to me and I ain't even thinking straight no more 'cause I done took a hit of the Flav, know what I'm saying," Clemons told detectives, using a slang term for crack. "So my mind is racing, know what I'm saying, adrenaline rush, know what I mean."
Clemons said Bowmer had opened the safe but that it was empty.
Authorities said Clemons robbed the surviving woman of her car keys and left in her sport-utility vehicle with her child in the back seat. The boy's mother escaped unharmed.
Police found the child, also unharmed, more than six hours later in the SUV, which had been abandoned at a nearby cemetery.
In his statement, Clemons depicted his mother's role as minor. Police found Mines, 52, in an alley near the Bowmer's home with blood on her face, clothes and shoes. She is charged with first-degree murder and two robbery counts. She has a jury trial set for June 18-19.
Authorities said Mines told police that her son was the shooter.
Christopher Toepp, the prosecutor who handled the case with Jones, praised detectives Burt and Smith for their hard work and for taking time away from their families during the holidays to solve the case and bring resolution to the victims' families.
Bowmer's daughter, Jessie Bowmer, said her three children miss their grandfather, a carpenter who owned a home-remodeling business.
On Christmas Eve, Jessie Bowmer had been out for much of the day doing some last-minute Christmas shopping. After she got home, her 5-year-old son saw an Amber alert on TV and recognized his friend, Kaiden Burnside, the boy who had been abducted from the scene of the double slaying.
"He told me Kaiden's on TV," Bowmer recalled. Then she saw pictures of her father's home flash across the screen.
"Every Christmas, I have to think about that," Jessie Bowmer said. "My father was my best friend."
SOURCE: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/...man-pleads-guilty-to-two-counts-o-ar-1903891/
A Richmond man who agreed to confess to a double killing as soon as police brought him a chicken dinner now faces 40 years to life in prison for the Christmas Eve shootings.
Jamal Louis Clemons, 27, pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of first-degree murder of Robin Clapp and Edward Lee Bowmer Jr. — two days after a judge denied a defense motion to have Clemons' confession thrown out.
"We're just so devastated," said Gail Otey, the mother of Bowmer's two children, after Wednesday's hearing. "We'll never get over it."
A transcript of Clemons' confession to Richmond investigators on Dec. 26 shows that Clemons waited anxiously for his meal and repeatedly asked why it was taking so long. He promised police detectives he would tell them everything they wanted to know as soon as the food arrived.
After police brought him a meal from Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken, Clemons told them in graphic detail how he fatally shot Clapp, 56, and Bowmer, 60, in a robbery at Bowmer's home in the 800 block of North 35th Street in the East End.
Clemons also described how he left the scene in another woman's vehicle with a 2-year-old boy who had been left in the back seat. The child was unharmed.
Otey praised the handling of the case by authorities but said she believes Clemons should die.
"I think he deserves the needle," she said. "He's straight demon."
Prosecutors said they will ask a judge at a sentencing hearing Aug. 27 to order a life sentence, the maximum punishment for first-degree murder. Authorities said they did not charge Clemons with capital murder because he gave a full confession, expressed remorse to the victims' families and because he didn't hurt the 2-year-old child.
Clemons apologized for the killings during the police interview on Dec. 26 and said he deserved the death penalty.
"If you take a person life, man, the Bible say your life should be took," Clemons told detectives. "Eye for a eye. Tooth for a tooth. That was in the beginning. Know what I'm saying?"
In exchange for Clemons' plea to the murder charges, prosecutors withdrew all other charges, including an abduction charge, three counts of robbery and six related firearm charges.
Clemons' attorney, Jacqueline M. Ford, declined to comment after the hearing.
In his confession, Clemons told Richmond police Detectives David Burt and Angela Smith that he was drunk on "black gin" and had smoked crack before he killed Clapp and Bowmer. He said he wanted to steal money and that he was so eager to get some cash that he snapped and shot Clapp in the face.
Clemons said he grabbed Bowmer and told him to open a safe. Clemons believed Bowmer had "10 stacks," or $10,000, inside the safe, said prosecutor Christopher Jones.
Clemons told police that Bowmer was trying to open the safe but was having trouble and that Clemons struck him with the gun.
Clemons said during the interview that his mother, Robin Mines, appeared at the home at some point but that he told her to leave and she did. Then he said another woman, a friend of Clapp's, arrived and came inside the house, leaving her son in the back seat of a car outside.
The woman saw Clapp's body and begged Clemons not to kill her, too. Clemons said he shot Bowmer twice and that he stopped moving.
"The alcohol talking to me and I ain't even thinking straight no more 'cause I done took a hit of the Flav, know what I'm saying," Clemons told detectives, using a slang term for crack. "So my mind is racing, know what I'm saying, adrenaline rush, know what I mean."
Clemons said Bowmer had opened the safe but that it was empty.
Authorities said Clemons robbed the surviving woman of her car keys and left in her sport-utility vehicle with her child in the back seat. The boy's mother escaped unharmed.
Police found the child, also unharmed, more than six hours later in the SUV, which had been abandoned at a nearby cemetery.
In his statement, Clemons depicted his mother's role as minor. Police found Mines, 52, in an alley near the Bowmer's home with blood on her face, clothes and shoes. She is charged with first-degree murder and two robbery counts. She has a jury trial set for June 18-19.
Authorities said Mines told police that her son was the shooter.
Christopher Toepp, the prosecutor who handled the case with Jones, praised detectives Burt and Smith for their hard work and for taking time away from their families during the holidays to solve the case and bring resolution to the victims' families.
Bowmer's daughter, Jessie Bowmer, said her three children miss their grandfather, a carpenter who owned a home-remodeling business.
On Christmas Eve, Jessie Bowmer had been out for much of the day doing some last-minute Christmas shopping. After she got home, her 5-year-old son saw an Amber alert on TV and recognized his friend, Kaiden Burnside, the boy who had been abducted from the scene of the double slaying.
"He told me Kaiden's on TV," Bowmer recalled. Then she saw pictures of her father's home flash across the screen.
"Every Christmas, I have to think about that," Jessie Bowmer said. "My father was my best friend."
SOURCE: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/...man-pleads-guilty-to-two-counts-o-ar-1903891/
