LITTLE ROCK — As they moved closer to deliberating on whether Vertis Clay deserves the death penalty or life behind bars for the savage killing of a Pine Bluff man, jurors on Friday heard more testimony about his "other side."
The federal jury, sitting in a Little Rock courtroom, on Wednesday convicted the 38-year-old North Little Rock man of killing Darryl Johnson, 38, of Pine Bluff on July 20, 2003, in return for money and drugs.
Johnson, who didn't know Clay, was killed by a large-caliber bullet fired at point-blank range into the back of his head as he fought for his life. He had just broken free of duct tape that for several hours hadbound his hands and feet behind him while he was blindfolded, sodomized with a broomstick, sliced with a knife and threatened with a hot iron, according to an admitted participant.
Now Clay is fighting for his life as well, with jurors expected to hear closing arguments on his sentence options and begin deliberations on Monday.
His attorneys, Mark Hampton and Blake Hendrix, both of Little Rock, hope to convince jurors that his life is worth sparing.
Among those who testified Friday was Wanda Ford, a Los Angeles woman with whom Clay has a daughter, now 14, and a son, now 13, and who described him as "a charmer" who "can make you laugh and put a smile on your face."
She said that years ago, Clay was so good to her older son from another relationship that "he swept me off my feet. I just fell head over heels in love withhim."
Ford testified that Clay has kept in touch with his children, and her other children, after moving back to Arkansas from California several years ago. She said he never forgets the children's birthdays or holidays. But she worries what will happen to the 13-year-old boy if he cannot maintain a relationship with his father, even if his father is in prison. She said the boy is bipolar, a disorder she thinks was triggered by her having twins with her current husband.
"He loves his father to death," Ford said.
Jurors also heard from one of Clay's five brothers, Bobby Ray Johnson of Los Angeles, who described him as a Christian-raised"mama's boy" who has a "kind heart," loves to read, and taught his mother to read and write.
A day earlier, Clay's mother, Oradean Clay, called him her "lump of sugar" and said she can't stand to visit him in jail because the rules don't allow her to touch him, and, "I can't take it."
Also on Thursday, Clay's 12thgrade English teacher at North Little Rock High School, Cookie Standley, told jurors, "I think there's good in Vertis. I think he deserves a chance. I found him to be a good person when I had him, and I think that good is still there."
Similarly, Clay's high-school football coach, Randy Sandefur, described the younger Clay as "a good kid who did exactly what I asked him to do."
The coach said Clay "was very popular. ... He always had a smile on his face. ... This is the last person I would have thoughtI'd have to come to court for."
Jurors also heard from the younger siblings of Clay's victim, Darryl Johnson.
Dexter Johnson told jurors how his brother tried to save their mother's life as their father stabbed her to death in their home in Missouri, where she had fled with her children from Kansas to escape her abusive husband.
The younger brother remembered that their oldest sibling tried to fight off their father with a broomstick - the same tool that was used as a weapon of torture in Johnson's final hours.
Over the years, he said, Darryl Johnson "was like a father-slashbrother," the two of them fishing, playing dominoes, watching movies, and his older brother attending all his football games.
"He was my hero. ... I'm pretty sure y'all will do the right thing," Dexter Johnson said.
Arkansas, Pages 13, 22 on 10/27/2007