Jackson County Sheriff David Lucas was 3 years old when James Ricks of North Little Rock was shot to death in a rural area near Newport in 1967. Now, 47 years later, Lucas has announced the arrest of a person in the slaying of Ricks, who was 27 when family members reported him missing.
Law enforcement officers in Sussex County, Del., arrested James Leon Clay, 67, of Georgetown, Del., at his home Tuesday morning on charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping.
"I wanted to give his [Ricks'] family closure after all this time," Lucas said of the investigation. "They were very happy."
According to an arrest affidavit signed by Jackson County Circuit Judge Harold Erwin on Monday, Clay told a cellmate while incarcerated in Delaware in 2012 in an attempted bank robbery that he "killed James Ricks in Arkansas in 1967."
On Aug. 27, 1967, James Shelton and his son, James Dewayne Shelton, found the remains of a man in a rural area of the county near Newport. The Jackson County coroner determined that the person had been shot at the base of the skull.
The remains were later identified by Ricks' brother Julius Ricks of North Little Rock.
Julius Ricks had reported to North Little Rock police that his brother James was missing on June 8, 1967, and that his brother's 1964 Oldsmobile was missing.
On June 20, 1967, Clay -- then 20 -- and his brother, Leon Junior Clay -- then 25 -- of Ellicott City, Md., were arrested in Ellicott City on a charge of carrying concealed weapons. Police tied the weapons to a theft at a Little Rock pawnshop on South Louisiana Street named Doc's Trading Post, according to a 1970 article in the Arkansas Democrat.
Police also found James Ricks' Oldsmobile and discovered fingerprints of both of the Clays inside and outside the vehicle, Lucas said in the affidavit.
The affidavit said the two were transported to Little Rock and were later convicted of transporting in interstate commerce, which included driving the stolen Oldsmobile from North Little Rock to Ellicott City. James Clay was also convicted of transporting a stolen .32-caliber pistol from North Little Rock.
Neither James Clay nor Leon Junior Clay was previously charged in the slaying of Ricks. Lucas said he did not know why.
Deb Green, a spokesman for the FBI in Little Rock, said she also didn't know why homicide charges weren't previously pursued.
"This is incredible that someone cared this much after all this time," Green said of the case. "I'm grateful this mystery has ended."
The arrest affidavit said that when James Clay told his prison cellmate in 2012 that he killed Ricks, he also admitted that he and his brother robbed a Little Rock pawnshop in 1967 and took guns, jewelry and handcuffs.
According to the affidavit, Clay told the cellmate -- whose name was redacted -- that their car broke down and that he and his brother were walking along some railroad tracks when they found James Ricks sleeping in his car.
"At that time, James Clay knocked on the window and startled Ricks," Lucas wrote in the affidavit. "James Clay said that he shot Ricks through the glass in the side of his face, but that it did not kill him."
Clay said he "got Ricks out of the car and handcuffed him and placed him in the trunk of his car," the affidavit said.
The two Clays then drove around all night, ending up in Newport, the affidavit said. Clay told his cellmate that there he got Ricks out of the car in a secluded area and handcuffed him to a tree, the affidavit said.
"Clay then told [the cellmate] that they would get just as much time [in jail] for shooting him as they would if the shot [had] killed him," Lucas wrote in the affidavit.
"Clay said that they took the handcuffs off of Ricks and told him that they would have someone come and get him. Clay said at that time he walked behind James Ricks and shot him in the back of the head."
The cellmate contacted the FBI in Baltimore and talked to investigators on April 17, 2012.
The affidavit said that last year Clay repeated the story twice while the cellmate was wearing a recording device. On Dec. 18, 2014, the cellmate wore the recording device while talking with Clay in a parole office in Georgetown, Del., then again in Clay's truck, the affidavit said. Both men had been released from prison on parole by then.
Clay said Ricks' wife sat in the front row of his federal court trial on the interstate commerce charges in 1968 and looked at him, the affidavit said.
"If looks could kill, I'd be dead 10 times," Clay was recorded as telling his former cellmate. Clay said that if he had been charged in the slaying, he would "have gotten the death penalty, because Arkansas kills a lot of people."
Third Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Henry Boyce said Clay could be transported back to Jackson County within 10 days if he waives extradition.
If Clay fights extradition, Boyce plans to petition Gov. Asa Hutchinson to request that Delaware Gov. Jack Markell issue a governor's warrant to release Clay into Jackson County's custody.
Authorities said they had no information on Leon Junior Clay.
Boyce said that although Ricks was black and James Clay is white, there is no evidence to indicate a racially motivated crime.
"We think it is a kidnapping and a murder case," Boyce said.
"The FBI approached us with new information in January," Boyce said. "It sounded like it was worth pursuing. Sheriff Lucas brought justice to a case that had been long since forgotten, except by the family."
A Section on 03/11/2015