Tuolumne County District Attorney Laura Krieg announced today that Jamestown resident Christopher Clark was sentenced to 12 years plus 7 years to life in State Prison by Judge James A. Boscoe. The crimes the defendant was convicted of on September 14, 2018 by a jury included: first degree premeditated attempted murder, inflicting injury to a spouse causing great bodily injury, false imprisonment causing great bodily injury, criminal threats, and resisting an executive officer with force or violence. Deputy District Attorney Stephanie Novelli prosecuted the case for the People.
On October 12, 2017 dispatch received a 911 call of a victim who had escaped her apartment through a window and was severely injured and had sought safety at a neighbor’s residence. At trial, the victim testified that the previous day she had told her spouse that she wanted to end their relationship. In the early morning hours of October 12, 2017, the defendant came in to a room multiple times over the course of two hours imploring the victim to stay together. Ultimately, the defendant asked the victim, “Is that your final answer?” When the victim told him “yes,” the defendant turned her around, told her he was going to kill her and proceeded to strangle the victim. The defendant then punched the victim multiple times and threw her in to the closet door. The victim attempted to escape out of the window but the pulled her back by the hair and began assaulting her again. Finally, she was able to escape out the window. When police arrived, the defendant barricaded himself in the apartment, began cleaning up the victim’s blood, and refused to come to the door or comply with commands of the multiple Tuolumne County Sheriff deputies who responded. The stand-off lasted for approximately eight hours where the Crisis Negotiation Team attempted to negotiate a peaceful resolution; however, the defendant refused to comply. Ultimately, the Tuolumne County SWAT team was able to gain access to the apartment and take the defendant in to custody after the defendant forcefully and violently resisted.
The defendant will serve the first 12 years of his sentence, which account for the crimes of inflicting injury to spouse causing great bodily injury, false imprisonment, criminal threats and resisting an officer with force or violence. After that, he will then begin his 7 years to life sentence for the premeditated first degree attempted murder.
