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New evidence links Bronco’s murder, another slayingBrad Jones, Face The StateWednesday, June 2, 2010 | |
A cell phone found in the SUV of the man convicted of killing Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams may first now become a key piece of evidence in another Denver murder case dating back to December 2006 — years after the phone and the car were impounded by Denver police in the Williams slaying.
A search warrant filed last month and obtained by Face The State indicates the phone was located in a vehicle that was linked to Williams’ early New Year’s Day 2007 murder and impounded shortly afterward. However, the phone only recently came up in connection with the other homicide. That case involves some of the same key individuals, who are now facing charges.
Kalonniann Clark, 28, narrowly survived a drive-by shooting attempt in June of 2005; the accused shooter, Brian Hicks, was scheduled to stand trial on charges of attempted murder in April of 2007. But prosecutors dropped the case after Clark, who also was the prosecution’s key witness, was gunned down on Dec. 6, 2006 before she could testify. Hicks was in jail at the time of Kalonniann Clark’s murder — ruling him out as the trigger-man — and the murder case remains open over three years later.
A vehicle owned by Willie Clark, the man convicted earlier this year of Williams’ murder, was involved in an accident on I-25 days after that Jan. 1, 2007 Williams shooting. The black Chevy Tahoe was impounded by Denver police, who obtained a search warrant for contents of the vehicle including “firearms, shell casings, ammunition,” spray paint paraphernalia and ballistics vests, all items that may have related to the football player’s murder.
In preparing for Clark’s homicide trial, a private investigator for the defense reviewed the Tahoe and its contents, including a cellular phone. The officer supervising the review (no specific date is indicated in the search warrant) later related to Det. Joel Humphrey the existence of the phone and its possible link to the Kalonniann Clark case. Judge Andre Rudolph approved Humphrey’s request to seize the phone as evidence in the Kalonniann Clark investigation on May 12 of this year.
According to the affidavit for the search warrant, Humphrey says he “knows that the cellular telephone would be evidence in a subsequent criminal prosecution for several reasons,” including that suspects related to the attempted murder case regularly conspired by phone, and that the cellular phone in the Tahoe may be one of 10 known to be in the possession of Willie Clark. Clark allegedly had made a phone call in which he said he had “knocked off a chick,” according to the search warrant affidavit, and call records and electronic data on the seized phone may corroborate that claim.
Prosecutors have charged Willie Clark, Brian Hicks and associate Shun Birch in Kalonniann Clark’s murder, though the trial is in initial stages and has not yet been heard by a jury. According to a report in the Denver Post, District Court Judge Christina Habas is reviewing a defense motion to review the disciplinary files of detectives Humphrey and Jaime Castro. If Habas concludes the files contain information that may lend to the defendants’ innocence, the contents would be shared only with the defense attorneys.
Calls to the Denver District Attorney’s office and the Denver Police Department weren’t immediately returned Tuesday afternoon.
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