Gang-Member Gets Life For Taking Life

A Tree-Trimmer Wearing OrangeBecomes Victim

 

Others Yet To Be Tried For Killing Clark

 

By THOMAS E. SEWARD
Special to the Chronicle

 

A judge gave last week a 20-year-old gang-member a life sentence for killing a man with no criminal connections whom the gangster mistook to be a rival gang-member.
Tommy Long, 20, was convicted early last month of first-degree murder in the June 8, 2011, shooting death of Jerry Clark, 45.
Others are expected to be tried in the case.
Oklahoma County District Judge Glenn Jones also sentenced Mr. Long to another 10 years for conspiracy to commit robbery.
Mr. Long also pleaded guilty to an unrelated burglary charge and received yet another two-year term.
Mr. Clark was found shot to death in his vehicle in the 2100 block of NE 28th Street.
He was said to live with his girlfriend, but received mail at his aunt’s house.
He was shot while leaving his aunt’s home after a visit, police said.
Prosecutors alleged that Mr. Long and three others intended to rob Mr. Clark, who they thought was a rival gang-member because he was wearing an orange shirt.
Mr. Clark, a tree-trimmer, was wearing a work shirt and had just left work, according to prosecutors.
He was not affiliated with a gang, Oklahoma County Assistant District Attorney Dan Gridley said after Mr. Long’s conviction in November.
Co-defendant Davion Pollard is awaiting trial on a murder charge.
A third defendant, Sean Austin Anderson, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge and received 10 years in prison plus 10 years for violating his probation in an unrelated case.
A fourth defendant, Chase Devon Calton, pleaded guilty to a murder charge and was sentenced as a youthful offender since he was 14 at the time of the crime.