A Delaware man who was extradited to Arkansas over the weekend to face a murder charge will be held in the Jackson County jail in Newport without bail.
James Leon Clay, 68, of Georgetown, Del., is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the 1967 shooting death of James Ricks, 27, of North Little Rock.
After an eight-month extradition process, Clay appeared in Newport District Court on Monday for a bail hearing before Judge Barbara Griffin.
Clay is scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 17 before Jackson County Circuit Judge Harold Erwin in Newport.
Henry Boyce, prosecuting attorney for Arkansas' 3rd Judicial Circuit, said it's unusual for a defendant to fight extradition.
"I've only had to extradite a handful of defendants over the years," Boyce said. "Most waive extradition, so this is a unique case. He obviously didn't want to face the music."
Randall Rudisill said he and Scott Nance, both of Newport, will serve as Clay's public defenders.
Clay was arrested March 10 after authorities said he was recorded telling a former cellmate that he killed Ricks. Clay admitted to the homicide when police arrested him, according to Delaware court documents. Then he requested a lawyer and fought extradition.
Robert Robinson, who was Clay's public defender in Delaware, said Clay often says things that aren't true.
"He's familiar to us because he has been in the mental health court here, which basically monitors people with severe mental illnesses," Robinson said. "He has said a lot of things to me that weren't true and didn't make sense. It's certainly evidence, but I don't know how strong it is. ... He was having a hard time in jail. I think it's entirely possible that he made something up to get credibility with other inmates."
Clay was arrested in 2011 after he attempted to rob a bank in Laurel, Del., while wearing a skeleton face mask. Clay fled empty-handed when a teller told him they had no money, Robinson said.
Clay pleaded guilty to attempted bank robbery on April 4, 2012, and was sentenced to three years in prison and two years probation, Robinson said.
While incarcerated at the Sussex County Correctional Institution in Georgetown, Del., Clay's cellmate contacted FBI agents in Baltimore on April 17, 2012, saying Clay told him about killing Ricks, according to an arrest affidavit from Jackson County Sheriff David Lucas.
On Dec. 18, after Clay and his former cellmate were out of prison, they met at a probation office and the former cellmate recorded Clay twice stating he had killed Ricks, according to the affidavit.
Clay told his cellmate that he and his brother, Leon Junior Clay, robbed a Little Rock pawnshop in 1967 and fled. Their car broke down and the two walked along railroad tracks until they found Ricks sleeping in his car.
Clay shot Ricks through the car window, striking him in the face, according to the affidavit. The shot wasn't fatal. Clay handcuffed Ricks and put him in the car's trunk.
Clay and his brother then drove away in Ricks' car, ending up near Newport later that night, where Clay shot Ricks a second time in the head, according to the affidavit.
Ricks and his 1964 Oldsmobile were reported missing on June 8, 1967.
On June 20, 1967, Clay, then 20, and Leon Junior Clay, then 25, of Ellicott City, Md., were arrested on a charge of carrying concealed weapons. Police tied the weapons to a theft at Doc's Trading Post, a pawnshop on South Louisiana Street in Little Rock, according to a 1970 article in the Arkansas Democrat.
The Clay brothers were also in possession of Ricks' car, according to the arrest affidavit. Authorities found fingerprints from both of the Clays inside and outside the vehicle.
The Clay brothers were later convicted of transporting in interstate commerce, which included driving the stolen car from North Little Rock to Ellicott City. James Clay was also convicted of transporting a stolen .32-caliber pistol from North Little Rock.
Neither of them was charged in connection with Ricks' homicide. Leon Junior Clay has since died.
On Aug. 27, 1967, a father and son found the remains of a man in a rural area of Jackson County. The county coroner determined that the man had been shot at the base of the skull. The remains were later identified as Ricks.
The affidavit states that James Leon Clay told the former inmate that if he had been charged with Ricks' slaying, he would "have gotten the death penalty because Arkansas kills a lot of people."
Lucas said he first learned of the 1967 murder on Jan. 8 when he received an email the FBI initially sent to the Jackson County judge.
The FBI had been investigating the homicide as a murder-for-hire case, but dropped that investigation, Lucas said. So the FBI wanted to make Jackson County officials aware of the 2012 recording of Clay.
Lucas said he was unable to find any records of the 1967 murder in the sheriff's office.
"The files from 1967 don't even exist anymore over here," he said.
But Lucas did find newspaper articles about it and Ricks' death certificate. His research continued from there.
Lucas said the Clay brothers were from the northeast. They were driving that direction when they stopped in Jackson County, not too far off Arkansas 14, and executed Ricks. Lucas said the highway would have been a main route through the county at that time.
Lucas said they're not pursuing kidnapping charges against Clay because the statute of limitations expired.
Metro on 11/17/2015