Opinion ID: 2157140
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: State v. Sharob Clowney

Text: On the evening of November 11, 1991, police discovered the naked body of Barbara Williams in her apartment with multiple stab wounds and an electrical cord wrapped around her neck. Seated next to her were her five-year-old and nine-year-old sons, Kyshon and Karee. Kyshon sustained thirty-seven stab wounds to his face, neck, chest, stomach, back, arms and legs, while Karee sustained twenty-five stab wounds to his chest and lung. The children managed to live, and later identified Clowney as the killer. A paramedic estimated that the stabbing occurred fourteen hours earlier, and that Williams died due to blood loss at least twelve hours earlier. Williams had contusions and hematomas consistent with being punched or held, as well as a lip laceration consistent with being punched. Thirty-nine stab wounds punctured her chest, lung, back, diaphragm, and liver. She also had defensive wounds. An autopsy revealed forceful penetration of her vagina and anus. Karee said that a man came in through the window and stabbed him, his brother, and his mother. He had survived by playing dead. After the man left the apartment, Karee covered his mother with a blanket, and as he did, his mother told him she loved him. On the day of the murder, Clowney was in the hospital with puncture wounds to his right elbow. He told two friends that he stabbed a woman and her two children, and explained that he was in the apartment exchanging sex for money or drugs. He said that the woman had the knife and they struggled for it. The three went to Williams' apartment before the body was discovered, but were refused entry into the building. His friends convinced Clowney to turn himself in the next day, and Clowney related his self-defense story. Kyshon and Karee subsequently identified Clowney in a photo array. Clowney's sperm was found at the scene, and a pair of Clowney's trousers contained Williams's blood. A knife found in Clowney's apartment also contained Williams's blood. The State did not prosecute Clowney capitally. A jury convicted him of murder, two counts of felony murder, attempted murder (two counts), aggravated sexual assault, and weapons offenses. The court sentenced him to life imprisonment with a thirty-year parole bar for the murder. Clowney was also sentenced to a concurrent nine-year sentence with a four-year parole ineligibility term for the aggravated sexual assault charge. For the first count of attempted murder, Clowney was sentenced to twenty years with a ten-year parole ineligibility term, to run consecutive to the murder charge. For the second count of attempted murder, Clowney was sentenced to another twenty-year term with a ten-year parole ineligibility term, to run concurrent to the first attempted murder sentence, as well as consecutive to the murder count. The other convictions were merged for purposes of sentencing. The AOC coded as present the c(4)(b) (grave risk of death to another) and c(4)(g) (contemporaneous felony) aggravating factors and the c(5)(c)(age), c(5)(d) (diminished capacity), and c(5)(h) (catch-all) mitigating factors. At the time of the murder, Clowney was nineteen years old and a drug dealer. He claimed to have sold drugs to the victim on numerous occasions. As an adult, he had a prior simple assault conviction. He also had an extensive juvenile record. He began drinking beer at age eleven, and went on to abuse hard alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine. Clowney's parents were both alcoholics, and his father abused drugs. His mother once attempted suicide and was diagnosed with adjustment disorder with depressed mood. His mother and her boyfriend physically and emotionally abused Clowney. She once cooked his pet hamsters in the oven and forced him to kill his dog. Clowney became suicidal like his mother. He made several suicide attempts. He tried to cut his wrists when he was twelve. When he was eighteen years old, he severed his finger but refused to go to the hospital. One year later, he tried to kill himself by drinking bleach. Williams also tried to kill himself in jail after murdering Williams by banging his head against the jail walls. He also burned his arm with cigarettes in order to alleviate his anger. He was diagnosed with intermittent-explosive disorder and borderline personality disorder with anti-social features.