Opinion ID: 2786325
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Clayton’s Crime

Text: Clayton’s petition does not claim that he is innocent of the crime for which he has been sentenced to death. In 1996, Clayton became angry at his girlfriend in a convenience store in Purdy, Missouri. Clayton I, 995 S.W.2d at 473-74. When Clayton pushed his girlfriend, a clerk in the store phoned the sheriff’s department. The Purdy police chief arrived and waited there until Clayton and his girlfriend left separately. Id. at 473. Within an hour, Clayton drove his truck to his girlfriend’s residence. She was not there, but her sister called the sheriff’s department when she saw Clayton sitting in his truck in their driveway. Id. Deputy Castetter was dispatched and arrived at the residence at 10:03 p.m. Three or four minutes later, two other deputies arrived to help Deputy Castetter deal with Clayton. When they arrived, however, they found Deputy Castetter in his patrol car, bleeding profusely from a point-blank gunshot wound to his forehead. Id. His gun was still in his holster. Deputy Castetter was taken to the hospital but soon died of his wound. Id. at 474. Within 15 minutes of this murder, Clayton arrived at a friend’s house, brandished a pistol, and exclaimed “would you believe me, if I told you that I shot a policeman, would you believe me?” Id. Clayton told his friend he needed him to provide an alibi. Clayton then drove his friend to Clayton’s house. Less than a half hour after the crime, the two arrived at Clayton’s home just as the police were arriving there to question him about Deputy Castetter’s murder. Clayton asked his friend “should I shoot them?” His friend answered “No.” Id. Clayton got out of his truck and, claiming he could not hear the officers, walked away from them and toward the side of his house with his right hand in his pocket. The officers saw him take something out of the pocket and put it in a stack of concrete blocks next to his house. The officers arrested Clayton and later found his gun among the concrete blocks. Id. In a subsequent interrogation, Clayton stated that Deputy Castetter “probably should have just stayed home” and that “he shouldn’t have smarted off to me.” Clayton added, however, “I don’t know because I wasn’t out there.” Later, Clayton admitted his involvement in Deputy Castetter’s murder to a cellmate. Clayton II, 63 S.W.3d at 204.