GUILTY NC - John Clark, 74, found buried at his Morganton home, 18 Dec 2014

OkieGranny

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http://www.morganton.com/news/offic...cle_3f4c4efe-8f98-11e4-a3cc-4778d7a45a42.html

Officers with the Burke County Sheriff’s Office began searching for John Bailey Clark, 74, of 5576 Rose Carswell Road, after family members reported him missing on Dec. 18, according to documents from the Burke County Clerk of Court’s Office.

After visiting Clark’s home, officers found a trail of blood and drag marks coming out of the residence. Investigators followed the trail to Clark’s bedroom, where they found more blood and what appeared to be a blood spatter on the wall under the bed, and a dried pool of blood in the bed under the pillow, according to the search warrant.

Outside the home, investigators followed what appeared to be blood droplets to an area in the front yard which showed signs of recent digging. The victim’s body was discovered there in a shallow grave.

http://www.wbtv.com/story/27669094/...ives-find-elderly-man-dead-near-burke-co-home

Family told police they saw Clark alive the day before, on Wednesday around 6 p.m.

Authorities say they aren't sure what the intruder was looking for. Relatives also seemed confused on what an intruder would have been after. They said John Clark had no money and wasn't on any type of medication that would interest anyone. The family described him as a recluse, a hermit who rarely went out, and someone who would never hurt anyone.

The Burke County Sheriff's Office said details surrounding Clark's death are being kept confidential until they investigate further. The State Bureau of Investigation is assisting in the investigation.
 
:thinking:
Hmmm...... Why would an 'intruder' go to all the effort of dragging him from the house & burying him ?
 
http://www.morganton.com/news/polic...cle_aae11e90-bc81-11e4-b020-dba6cce252dd.html

Officials with the Burke County Sheriff’s Office have confirmed Clark was killed by a gunshot. Investigators would not reveal how many times or in what areas the victim had been shot.

BCSO is continuing to investigate the case, and conducted a related interview earlier this week...

Although BCSO set up a dedicated hotline at 828-391-0268 for information on the case, and Morganton-Burke Crime Stoppers offered a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to an arrest, officials say none of the tips called in so far have panned out.
 
From last month:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article48901365.html

Justin Sullivan, a Morganton teenager accused of plotting to kill hundreds of people in support of the Islamic State, fits the profile of many of the Americans charged with working on behalf of the terrorist organization, according to a study released this month. Except for this: His family noticed his apparent radicalization and sought help...

Sullivan’s name has surfaced this week in connection with the December 2014 shooting death of John Bailey Clark, 74, whose body was found in a shallow grave near his home on Rose Carswell Road.... He lived on the same street as Sullivan.

Clark’s death had remained unsolved until the Burke County Sheriff’s Department issued a weekend press release saying it has “a suspect who is currently in custody on other charges.”
 
OkieGranny

You are a wizard at finding updates on threads that have gone dormant, sometimes years dormant. Thank you for the follow up work.

Appreciate it, as I often lose track of cases.
 
NC prosecutors to seek death penalty for alleged ISIS sympathizer

North Carolina prosecutors said Monday they would seek the death penalty against a Morganton teen and self-proclaimed Islamic convert who was indicted in the death of one of his neighbors.

Justin Sullivan, 19, was given a true bill of indictment in February in the death of 74-year-old John Bailey Clark. Clark's body was found buried in his yard on Rose Carswell Road in December 2014 after police went to perform a welfare check at his home.

(...)

In court Monday, Sullivan told the judge he understood the charges and because the state announced it would see the death penalty, the judge said two attorneys would be appointed to represent him. No date was set for the next hearing on the state charges. Sullivan is slated to go to trial on the federal charges in Asheville in October.

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/...ek-death-penalty-for-alleged-isis-sympathizer
 
A North Carolina teenager accused of plotting a terror attack in the United States communicated with a member of ISIS known as 'Mr Terror' as he developed his plans, a federal indictment alleges.

Justin Nojan Sullivan, 19, spoke with Junaid Hussain in June last year through social media about making a video of a terrorist attack in the United States to be used by ISIS, according to the indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Charlotte on Tuesday.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...tml?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
 
A Morganton man accused of plotting attacks in support of the Islamic State terror group and killing a neighbor as practice pleaded not guilty during a federal court hearing Wednesday.

Justin Nojan Sullivan's attorney entered the plea on her client’s behalf and said he wants a jury trial.

Sullivan did not appear in U.S. Federal District Court but remained jailed in the Buncombe County Detention Facility, where he has been held since September 2015.

A trial has been set for Oct. 31, according to court proceedings. Sullivan faces a maximum penalty of life in prison
http://www.citizen-times.com/story/...ot-guilty-attempting-aid-terrorists/89251364/
 
The federal trial of the man accused of killing his neighbor and lending support to a terrorist organization has been continued.

Federal court documents say the trial of Justin Nojan Sullivan has been moved forward to the Jan. 3 trial term.

The case was previously set for trial during the Oct. 31 term but after a status conference on Sept. 28 with attorneys on both sides, the court found the case should be continued, according to case filings.
http://www.morganton.com/news/case-...cle_3fbab582-8c22-11e6-ae9b-df4e1baee3af.html
 
From November:

Terror suspect pleads guilty

http://www.morganton.com/community/terror-suspect-pleads-guilty/article_2fd4b73a-b68e-11e6-b727-63e57e282f17.html

Morganton resident Justin Nojan Sullivan pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to one count of attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries.

The charge carries a sentence of between 30 years to life and a fine of $250,000, according to federal court officials. Sullivan will be sentenced on the charge at a later date but under the plea agreement, the parties have agreed that a sentence of life in prison is an appropriate one, according to federal officials.

John Bailey Clark lived a few houses down from Sullivan and was found buried in a shallow grave behind his house on Dec. 18, 2014. He had been shot in the head three times with a small-caliber gun. Ballistics testing on the rifle that federal agents seized from Sullivan's home showed it was used to murder Clark, according to federal officials.

A grand jury in Burke County indicted Sullivan for the murder of Clark. District Attorney David Learner was at Sullivan’s federal plea hearing on Tuesday but would not comment about the murder case. Learner previously has said that he will seek the death penalty against Sullivan.
 
3ADFEF5700000578-3981660-image-a-2_1480487165592.jpg
Justin Nojan Sullivan

Sullivan also faces state charges in the death of his neighbor, John Bailey Clark, who was killed in December 2014.

At the hearing Tuesday, he didn't say he had killed Clark; however, prosecutors reserved the right to prove the charge at the sentencing hearing...

Authorities have said Sullivan killed Clark and stole the man's money so he could buy an assault rifle to carry out the attacks.


https://www.google.com/amp/www.dail...ppear-court.html?client=ms-android-sonymobile
 
Federal authorities were first made aware of the teen's alleged plot when his father, Richie Sullivan, told emergency dispatchers on April 21 that his son was destroying religious items in their home.

'I don't know if it is ISIS or what, but he is destroying Buddhas and figurines and stuff,' Mr Sullivan, a former Marine, said, according to the criminal complaint filed on Monday. 'I mean, we are scared to leave the house.'

In the background of the call, his son was heard asking: 'Why are you trying to say I am a terrorist?'

When an undercover FBI employee made contact with Sullivan on June 6, the teen told him via email that he was a a Muslim convert, according to court documents.

"I liked IS from the beginning then I started thinking about death and stuff so I became Muslim,' he said, according to the complaint.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...laying-1-000-Americans-held-indefinitely.html
 
Teen talked of killing on behalf of ISIS. But question remains, why? - February 24th

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article134713784.html

Today, the 20-year-old remains jailed in Asheville, awaiting sentencing from a federal judge. Late last year, Sullivan pleaded guilty to plotting to attack a club or concert in support of the Islamic State, the terrorist group better known as ISIS or ISIL. The plea deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte carries a recommended life sentence.

Sullivan also faces a state murder charge – and a potential death penalty – in connection with the Dec. 17, 2014, shooting death of John Bailey Clark, a 74-year-old disabled neighbor who lived about 350 yards down Rose Carswell Road from Sullivan and his parents. Sullivan has pleaded not guilty to the charge, and a trial has not been scheduled.

The Burke County murder indictment came in February 2016, more than eight months after Sullivan’s original arrest. According to documents, Sullivan bragged to a fellow jail inmate that he thought he could get away with the killing because Clark “was nobody ... was nothing.”

Victoria Jayne of Hickory, Sullivan’s defense attorney in the Burke County murder case, describes her client as smart, polite and mild-mannered. But she adds that for years he has been beset by depression and other emotional problems. With Sullivan’s life on the line, Jayne believes the publicity surrounding his ties to ISIS seriously jeopardizes his chances of finding an impartial jury.

“Can he get a fair trial in Burke County?” Jayne asks. “Can he get a fair trial anywhere in North Carolina?”

On the night of Dec. 17, three months after his religious conversion and with his parents on a weekend trip, Sullivan pulled on a ski mask and walked a quarter mile through the darkness to the home of John Bailey Clark, prosecutors say. There, he picked a door lock and slipped inside.

After making his way to Clark’s bedroom, Sullivan put the .22-caliber rifle he’d stolen from his father’s gun cabinet a few inches from the head of his sleeping neighbor, then pulled the trigger three times, documents say. The next day, a trail of blood led investigators to the 20-inch-deep grave scratched out besides the house that held Clark’s naked body.

Sullivan hid the rifle, ski mask and lock-picking set in the crawl space of his parents’ home, documents say.

Months later, he would tell a fellow jail inmate that he shot Clark as “practice” for the planned killing of his father. Rich Sullivan’s death was to be payback, documents say, for making a pivotal 911 phone call in 2015.

Sullivan remains jailed in a kind of legal limbo. Neither his federal sentencing hearing nor his state murder trial has been scheduled.
 
Sentencing for terror, murder suspect Justin Sullivan set for Tuesday

http://www.morganton.com/news/sentencing-for-terror-murder-suspect-justin-sullivan-set-for-tuesday/article_bc80e11a-592f-11e7-94ac-dbc17b8363ae.html

It was two years ago this week that FBI agents arrested a Morganton teenager on suspicion of having links to the terrorist group ISIS.

On Tuesday, Justin Nojan Sullivan, 21, is expected to be sentenced at 9 a.m. in courtroom No. 1 at the federal courthouse in Asheville. The courthouse is located at 100 Otis St. He faces a sentence of life in prison.
 
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article158398854.html

Calling Justin Sullivan’s plot a “cold and calculated” conspiracy of ISIS-inspired terror, a federal judge in Asheville sent the 21-year-old Morganton man to prison for the rest of his life.

Justin Sullivan still faces a trial for his life in Burke County in connection with the December 2014 shooting death of John Bailey Clarke, a 74-year-old recluse who lived near the Sullivan home on Rose Carswell Drive in Morganton, about 75 miles northwest of Charlotte.

Despite Sullivan’s life sentence, District Attorney David Learner said the capital murder charges remain, though no trial date has been selected. He declined other comment.

Federal prosecutors never charged Sullivan with Clarke’s killing. But explicit details of the elderly man’s violent death as he slept are highlighted through numerous court documents filed in Sullivan’s terrorism case.
 
ISIS conspirator admits murdering elderly neighbor; prosecutors drop death penalty

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article161716598.html

During a 10 a.m. court hearing in Burke County, Justin Sullivan admitted he shot and killed John Bailey Clark in December 2014 as the 74-year-old recluse slept in his bedroom. Federal court documents say Sullivan stole one of his father’s rifles, slipped into Clark’s home just down the street from his parents’ house, and fired three shots into Clark’s head. Clark’s body was found in a shallow grave beside his house.

Under the agreement, Sullivan will receive another life in prison that would go into effect if he is ever released from federal prison on the ISIS-related charges, Jayne says.

http://www.morganton.com/news/justin-sullivan-sentenced-to-life-for-clark-murder/article_84d8edc2-6b16-11e7-946e-270ebc0e0684.html

Outside the Burke County Courthouse, Clark’s sister-in-law, Glenda Clark, said hearing the details of the crime was rough but the family can now have some closure. She said they wanted justice for Johnny and feel they got it. She said they are satisfied with the plea deal and sentencing.
 

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