SEARCY -- A man accused of killing his 2-year-old son and disposing of the boy's body in another county is mentally fit to proceed to trial, a judge ruled Thursday.
Judge Robert Edwards accepted the findings of a psychiatric evaluation of Jeffery Clifton, 43, of Searcy after neither the defense nor the prosecution objected.
Edwards, ruling in White County Circuit Court, advised Clifton's attorney, Ronald Davis Jr., that the ruling would not prevent them from raising a defense of innocent by reason of mental disease or defect. If they pursue that defense, though, Edwards said they should give the court adequate notice.
Clifton is charged with capital murder and abuse of a corpse in the November 2014 beating death of his son, Malik Drummond.
A former Arkansas State University basketball standout, Clifton -- who is 6 feet 7 inches tall, thin and balding -- appeared in court in standard orange jail clothes, and was shackled and handcuffed. Seated beside his attorney, Clifton answered the judge's questions about the accuracy of an affidavit of indigency.
Edwards agreed to allow the Arkansas Public Defender Commission to provide expert witnesses needed in Clifton's trial.
Davis said he will continue to represent Clifton, who has been jailed without bail since his arrest on Dec. 1 last year.
Though Clifton was previously employed, he no longer has any income and his only assets are a bed, a television and a couch, the judge said in reading from the affidavit.
Edwards set Clifton's next pretrial hearing for 9 a.m. May 19 and said a trial date probably would be set then.
Details of the mental evaluation were not made public.
Clifton's former girlfriend, Lesley Sue Marcotte, 28, of Springdale, is awaiting a June 8 pretrial hearing and a June 14 trial. She has pleaded innocent to a felony charge of hindering apprehension or prosecution in the case.
Marcotte and Clifton initially told police that Malik had wandered away from their home Nov. 23, 2014.
In an affidavit earlier this year, police wrote that Marcotte had since told them that Clifton fatally beat Malik on Nov. 20, 2014, and kept the body hidden until early Nov. 23, 2014, when, Marcotte said, he got rid of it.
Police arrested Clifton the same day he led them to skeletal remains in a vacant lot in Auvergne.
The small town is south of Newport and about 40 miles from Searcy. DNA helped authorities identify the remains as Malik's.
Malik lived with his mother, Tanya Drummond, but at the time of his death had spent a couple of weeks at the home his father shared with Marcotte.
In Arkansas, capital murder is punishable by death or life in prison without parole.
State Desk on 04/15/2016