Half a century after James Leon Clay fatally shot a North Little Rock man on a rural Jackson County road, Clay confessed to the slaying and will now serve time in the Arkansas Department of Correction.
Clay, 69, of Georgetown, Del., pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree murder during a hearing in Jackson County Circuit Court in Newport. Circuit Judge Harold Erwin sentenced Clay to 20 years in prison, ending the case that began with the fatal shooting of James Ricks, 27, on June 8, 1967.
Clay was scheduled to go on trial next week in Newport, Prosecuting Attorney Henry Boyce said. Boyce had expected the trial would last a week. He had subpoenaed four witnesses from Delaware, where Clay was arrested, to testify.
"We were absolutely satisfied we had a strong case," Boyce said. "We had some technical evidentiary issues, but there's no doubt in my mind James Clay did it."
Boyce said the length of time that had passed since the fatal shooting, the lack of forensic evidence, and the fact that Erwin had yet to rule on allowing the use of Clay's confession to police and a confidential informant were reasons for the negotiated plea.
The prosecutor said he spoke with Ricks' brother, Julius Ricks, who agreed to the plea deal.
Clay didn't speak during the plea hearing Tuesday in Newport, other than to reply "guilty" when Erwin asked him for his plea, Boyce said.
"Judge Erwin read the facts of the case and the charge against him," Boyce said. "[Clay] made no statements."
Boyce said Clay could have received a maximum sentence of 21 years for the second-degree murder plea. He said Clay's chances of an early parole were "minimal" because of Clay's "extensive" criminal history.
According to an arrest affidavit filed in Jackson County Circuit Court by Sheriff David Lucas in March, Clay was accused of shooting Ricks in the back of his head after Clay and his brother, Leon Junior Clay, kidnapped him and took Ricks' car after robbing a Little Rock pawnshop.
The two stole weapons, jewelry and handcuffs at the South Louisiana Street pawnshop, Doc's Trading Post, according to a 1970 article in the Arkansas Democrat.
In his affidavit, Lucas said Clay admitted to a cellmate in 2012 that he killed Ricks. Clay was in a Delaware prison serving time for an attempted bank robbery.
Lucas said the two drove away but that their car broke down. The Clays walked until they found Ricks sleeping in his 1964 Oldsmobile parked near railroad tracks in North Little Rock.
"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."
Lucas said Clay took Ricks out of the car, handcuffed him and placed him in the Oldsmobile's trunk. After heading north, they ended up near Newport later that evening.
Clay told the cellmate that he took Ricks out of the trunk of the car, took off his handcuffs and said he and his brother would have someone pick up Ricks.
"Clay said at that time he walked behind James Ricks and shot him in the back of the head," Lucas wrote in the affidavit.
A hunter and his son found the remains of Ricks' body 11 weeks later, on Aug. 27, 1967, Boyce said.
Julius Ricks identified his brother because the skeletal remains included a work uniform with James Ricks' first name stitched on the shirt.
Police arrested Clay and his brother -- who has since died -- in Ellicott City, Md., on June 20, 1967, on a charge of carrying concealed weapons. Police tied the weapons to the theft of the Little Rock pawnshop and found Clay driving Ricks' Oldsmobile when he was arrested. They also discovered fingerprints inside the vehicle, and the driver's window was broken from the gunshot.
The two were taken back to Little Rock where they were convicted of transporting stolen firearms in interstate commerce.
Neither was charged with Ricks' slaying, a fact that confused Julius Ricks.
"I kept waiting to hear that they got them for killing my brother," Ricks, 70, said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "But I never thought it would come."
After Clay admitted to the inmate that he had shot Ricks, the inmate agreed with police to meet with Clay after he was paroled and to tape Ricks confessing to the crime. The cellmate met with Clay on Dec. 18, 2014.
The cellmate recorded Clay talking about seeing James Ricks' wife during Clay's trial on the firearms charges in 1968.
"If looks could kill, I'd be dead 10 times," Clay was recorded saying. He added that if he had been charged in the slaying, he would have "gotten the death penalty, because Arkansas kills a lot of people."
Boyce said he was bound by the state's laws of 1967 when preparing his prosecution of Clay. At that time Arkansas, had no capital murder charge; those charged with the maximum of first-degree murder, if convicted, would either receive the death penalty or serve life in prison without parole.
"The state Crime Lab did not exist back then," Boyce said. "There was no forensic unit. We had the coroner's report that [Ricks] was shot in the back of the head, but there was no autopsy."
Boyce said circumstantial evidence put Clay in Ricks' car, but he was concerned that Erwin might suppress the taped confession. With less than a week before Clay's trial, Erwin had yet to make a ruling on the admissibility of the confession and statements Clay made to police.
"We had a high burden of proof," Boyce said. "Any case this old makes jurors question how good the case is."
Lucas said Tuesday evening that he was pleased he could help Ricks' family gain closure after nearly 50 years.
"We were in this for the family," the sheriff said. "All the physical evidence was nonexistent after all that time. A lot of research took place. It was a collaborative effort."
Julius Ricks, who attended the plea hearing Tuesday in Newport, said he was stunned by the confession.
"This is a good thing," he said. "It took a long time. My brother was a friendly guy. Everybody loved him.
"This gave me some closure. This brought my brother back alive because so many people forgot him. He was always on my mind."
Julius Ricks said he's seen Clay the few times he has appeared in Jackson County Circuit Court hearings over the past year, but he's never spoken with him.
"My brother was at the wrong place at the wrong time," Ricks said. "That's it. I'm not angry at [Clay]. I got no hate in my heart."
State Desk on 11/23/2016