WIFE CONVICTED IN HALF-MILLION DOLLAR COLD CASE CONTRACT HIT
Hit Man Already Serving Life
Atlanta- Jurors have convicted a woman for masterminding a plot to have her husband killed in an effort to cash in on a life insurance policy. Constance Clark, 38, was found guilty of Murder, Felony Murder, Aggravated Assault, Conspiracy to Commit Murder and Possession of a Firearm for the shooting death of her husband William Eric Clark, 35. Defendant Clark’s cousin, Jean Pierre Devaughn, 29, was convicted in April and sentenced to life in prison for the same crimes.
Victim Clark’s bullet-riddled body was found lying in the Yupon Road driveway of a home in a partially completed College Park subdivision on December 13, 2005. He was shot multiple times in his head and body. Neighbors reported hearing gunshots and seeing two cars leave the area shortly thereafter. The subsequent investigation revealed that Clark, a Birmingham resident, had come to Atlanta to meet his wife’s cousin, Defendant Devaughn, to make a bulk alcohol purchase for his bartending business. Shortly before being gunned down, the defendant asked Clark to follow him in his automobile to the partially populated subdivision. Once inside the subdivision, Defendant Devaughn exited his vehicle and fired shots at his cousin-in-law, fatally striking him in the head. Devaughn and two male passengers then fled the scene. One of the accomplices, co-defendant Christopher Tumlin, escaped in the victim’s car.
Fulton County Police arrested Devaughn in July of 2006 in connection with the case. However, deeming there was insufficient evidence at the time to garner a conviction, the District Attorney’s Office declined to present the case to a grand jury. The case sat dormant until 2008 when it was assigned to the DA’s Multi-Jurisdictional Cold Case Squad. Their investigation revealed that Defendant Constance Clark had secured a $500,000 life insurance policy on her husband just six months before his death. She also renewed a previous policy in the amount of $100,000. Believing there was now enough information to move forward with prosecution, the State presented the case to a Grand Jury that returned a subsequent indictment in May of 2009.
Following the guilty verdicts, Clark was sentenced to life plus five years in prison for her husband’s murder. She is currently serving a prison term on state charges in Alabama for identity fraud in an unrelated matter. Trial is also pending for Christopher Tumlin, identified as one of Jean Pierre Devaughn’s accomplices.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Marvin Arrington presided over the case.
Senior Assistant District Attorney Pat Dutcher led the prosecution with assistance from ADA Stephanie Graham, DA Bernadette Hernandez and APD Detective Vincent Velazquez, formerly assigned to the District Attorney’s Cold Case Squad. Former Fulton County Police Detective Kip Young, now a DA Investigator, led the initial investigation.
Media Contact: Yvette Brown, 404-224-0560/404-392-8867, yvette.brown@fultoncountyga.gov