OH - Carolyn Clark, 43, beaten to death, Ashtabula, 7 May 2005

An Ashtabula man charged with killing the mother of his 13 children changed his plea Friday.

Ralph Clark is charged with the murder of his wife, Carolyn Clark, NewsChannel5 reported.

Court records show Carolyn Clark feared for her life because her husband's church had labeled her an outcast.
http://www.newsnet5.com/news/6116618/detail.html

Clark pleads guilty in negotiated plea

Clark killed his wife by beating her with a .22 caliber rifle the night of May 7 as she prepared to move out of town with seven of their young children. She had been granted temporary custody of the children during divorce proceedings, according to her attorney, Jane Hawn-Jackson.

Sartini was questioned by reporters after the hearing about the defendant being a member of the (Trinity) Apostolic Faith Church (Body of Jesus Christ of the Newborn Assembly) in Jefferson Township or if anyone from the mostly African-American church leadership was connected in any way to the murder.

"We found no one from the church involved in any complicity in this case," said Sartini adding that there were rumors aplenty. "I don’t deal in thoughts, but evidence."

"I have no witnesses that Ralph Clark went back to the bishop. It’s done," said Sartini replying to a reporter’s question.

Sartini said his office investigated possible links between Carolyn Clark’s murder and the Apostolic Faith Church. He contends nobody has come forth with pertinent information.

However, the Ashtabula County Children Services Bureau is conducting an investigation into possible criminal acts by Keyes and other church members. So far, no one has been charged with any crime.
http://www.starbeacon.com/?MC=NEWS&NID=1&AID=9962

Vettel stopped Clark, and told him that, to accept the plea, he must hear an admission of guilt.
"On May 7, I purposely killed my wife," Clark replied, with no evidence of emotion.
"Was it planned?" Vettel asked.
"Yes. I planned to do it that night."
Vettel then noted the facts of the case, as he knew them from a previous suppression hearing in which four separate confessions made by Clark to police were ruled admissible.
Vettel said he understood Clark was afraid his estranged wife was going to take the youngest of their 13 children out of state. So he borrowed a brother's truck and another brother's .22 -caliber rifle and went to her home with the express purpose of killing her, and then himself.
The gun did not fire, and he then used it to hit her repeatedly. It was destroyed in the attack, and he could not use it to kill himself, Vettel said.
"Yes, that's right," Clark said.
Sentencing is set for 10 a.m. Wednesday, the day his jury trial was scheduled to begin.
http://www.news-herald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15928299&BRD=1698&PAG=461&dept_id=21849&rfi=6

Police said Clark, 44, on May 7 beat his estranged wife, 43-year-old Carolyn Clark, in the head with the stock of a rifle in front of the youngest five of their 13 children.
Clark earlier had pleaded innocent by reason of insanity, meaning he did not know right from wrong at the time of the killing because of mental illness. The trial was scheduled to start next week.
Vettel ruled in October that Clark was mentally competent to assist his defense and on Dec. 22 denied a motion by Clark's court-appointed attorney, Hobart Shiflet, to suppress a recording of a confession Clark made to police after his arrest.

Mrs. Clark had won custody of the children days before her death. Eight are now in county custody. Legal papers she filed in the custody dispute accused leaders of the couple's church of sexual and physical abuse against members, including children.
Clark said she was trying to get her young children away from the church, which she accused of brainwashing her husband and older children. The older children have often attended court hearings to support their father.
Prosecutors looked into the church and its bishop, Charles Keyes, but found nothing, Sartini said.
"We heard all kinds of rumors, but we found no evidence the church was complicit in her death," Sartini said.
Social service officials are looking into the abuse allegations against the Apostolic Church Body of Jesus Christ of the Newborn Assembly, which has denied wrongdoing.
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/13622917.htm

Leaders of the Apostolic Faith Church of God Organization in Franklin, Va., knew two years ago about the possibility of sexual abuse in a Jefferson Township church, according to a letter dated June 1, 2003, by Ruth Jones of Jefferson.

Jones, the adult daughter of the Rev. Robert Lyons of Conneaut, told the Apostolic General Assembly she provided shelter to a minor female after the girl suffered sexual, emotional and physical trauma at the hands of Apostolic Faith Church, Body of Jesus Christ of the Newborn Assembly, members.

"The alleged perpetrators include the leader's sons and other regular members of the church," the letter stated. "These abuse practices apparently are common and well known amongst many, if not all, members of this church, including its leaders."

Jones went on to say the girl told her the abuse started at age 11 and continued until she ran away in 2002. Another young female also told Jones she suffered sexual trauma beginning at age 5, the letter stated. This letter surfaced a little more than two weeks after former church member Carolyn Clark, 43, was beaten to death in her Ashtabula apartment.
<more at the link>
http://www.rickross.com/reference/apostolic/apostolic8.html

This link has several links with inof on this church and allegations that have been made
http://www.rickross.com/groups/apostolic.html

Six years ago, a cult-survivor advocate told social workers about child abuse at the hands of the Apostolic Faith Church in Jefferson Township, to no avail.
<snip>
For discipline, the children were whipped with tubing across their backs, she said http://www.rickross.com/reference/apostolic/apostolic2.html



A caseworker’s report indicates the boy was hogtied in September 2004 and left overnight on the church floor in front of the altar as a form of punishment for misbehaving at school. "His face and body were physically forced under cold water in a bathtub in the house next to the church on Griggs Road," according a sworn affidavit by Katie Lane of the Children Services Board, signed May 9, 2005. "(The boy) indicates Charles Keyes Jr., also known as C.J., was the perpetrator of these two incidents." http://www.rickross.com/reference/apostolic/apostolic14.html

From what I have read so far(much more to read) it seems to me like Mrs. Clark had good reason for leaving. To bad she didn't make it.