THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 9, 1995 TAG: 9505090298
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
Clark C. Bedsole, a Deep Creek businessman accused of orchestrating his wife's execution in a murder-for-hire scheme, was convicted Monday of capital murder by a jury that recommended a life sentence.
Bedsole, 46, owner of Clark Electric, was charged with paying $4,000 to have his wife, Helen, killed on Nov. 9, 1993. The couple was undergoing a nasty divorce and Clark Bedsole was unhappy with the settlement, according to friends and family members. The couple had two children.
The jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding Bedsole guilty of murder and a firearms charge. He showed no emotion as the clerk read the jury's guilty verdicts, or when the jury returned later to recommend life plus a $50,000 fine for the capital murder charge. The jury also recommended the mandatory three-year sentence for the firearms charge.
After their father's conviction, Sherry Bedsole and Clark Clifford Bedsole Jr. stood crying in the courtroom, staring at the chair he had left as he was led away by sheriff's deputies. They left quickly without commenting.
``The kids, that's their dad, they love their dad, and no matter what, he's still their dad,'' said Suzan King, Helen Bedsole's younger sister. ``It's been difficult for the kids and it's been difficult for the rest of the family.''
``I tried to keep an open mind during this trial. . . but the evidence just kept mounting and mounting and mounting against him,'' she said, adding that she was happy with the jury's decision.
Helen Bedsole, a 44-year-old C&P Telephone Co. employee, was found dead in the kitchen of her brick ranch home in Geneva Shores by her roommate, Gerry Jones. She was lying in a pool of blood with a chicken bone in her hand. She had been shot once in the head and once in the neck.
The alleged triggerman, Marlon D. Williams, 22, faces a trial for capital murder and firearms charges in July.
``It's really amazing how little a life means to some people,'' said King, who made a six-hour round trip every day from her home in Rocky Mount, N.C. ``Four thousand dollars is not a whole lot of money when you're talking about somebody's life.''
Police became certain of Clark Bedsole's involvement in the murder-for-hire scheme after detectives secretly taped Williams, the alleged shooter, talking to a police informant about the killing. The informant agreed to have his car wired by police in exchange for $5,000.
According to the tape, Williams agreed to kill Helen Bedsole for $4,000. Bedsole agreed to pay Williams $3,000 before the murder and $1,000 after the job was completed, the tape said.
On the 40-minute recording, Williams told the informant that Helen Bedsole ``was getting ready to get half'' of her husband's assets, and that Clark Bedsole also wanted to collect as beneficiary on her life insurance policy, worth more than $100,000.
On the tape, Williams said he borrowed a beach cruiser bicycle and rode to Helen Bedsole's home on Nov. 9, 1993. After riding past the house three times, Williams ditched the bike in some nearby woods and walked up the front steps, the tape indicated.
Williams broke the front door handle and opened the door, according to the tape. As Bedsole stood in the kitchen, Williams grabbed her head and fired his Colt .380 twice, according to the tape.
During the weeklong trial, Williams was called to the witness stand but refused to testify, invoking his constitutional right under the Fifth Amendment. On the stand, he pushed the microphone away and swiveled back in forth in his chair, looking intently at Clark Bedsole, who sat beside his lawyers.
Bedsole took the stand and confessed to spending at least $10,000 for crack cocaine and committing adultery during his troubled 25-year marriage, but denied any involvement in the killing.
``I in no way had anything to do with the death of my wife,'' he said. ``I love my wife as much today. . . as the day I met her.''
Jones, Helen Bedsole's roommate, said after the verdict: ``(Helen) was going to fight for her freedom. All Helen was fighting for was what she was entitled to.
``Helen had finally started having a life of her own. She was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.''
Commonwealth's Attorney David Williams, who prosecuted the case, said he did not request the death penalty because Clark Bedsole had no criminal history and the crime did involve sexual assault, torture or robbery.
Clark Bedsole faces a cocaine possession charge for an unrelated incident. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Clark C. Bedsole
KEYWORDS: MURDER FOR HIRE MURDER CONVICTION SHOOTING CAPITAL MURDER
by CNB