A man who attacked two convenience store clerks last year with a box cutter was sentenced to 40 years by a Miller County judge Monday.
David Wayne Clark, Jr., 25, has been behind bars since his arrest March 27, 2015, the day two clerks were stabbed at a convenience store on East 9th Street in Texarkana, Ark. Clark suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and told investigators he believed the men he attacked were members of the terrorist group ISIS, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Clark, who lived not far from the Stop and Shop, had patronized the store many times before the assaults without any problems. Clark entered the store the day of the attack and placed several items on the counter. Without warning, Clark reached across the counter and slashed one clerk’s neck before jumping the counter and stabbing a second clerk in the side.
Officers responding to the scene administered first aid and both clerks were taken to a local hospital for treatment. Clark was quickly identified as the lone suspect through video surveillance footage and statements from the clerks.
Investigators found Clark at his home wearing the same pants he’d been seen wearing in the surveillance recording. He told the investigators he believed the clerks were plotting to harm him.
At a hearing Monday at the Miller County courthouse, Clark pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted capital murder and a count of aggravated robbery before Circuit Judge Brent Haltom. Texarkana lawyer Darren Anderson, who represented Clark, said that Clark was deemed competent to stand trial by a psychologist who evaluated him last year.
Clark could have received three life terms if convicted and sentenced by a jury. Prosecuting Attorney Stephanie Black managed the prosecution’s case.
