According to testimony at this week’s murder trial, Gary Wayne Wallace was drunk when he answered the phone with the 911 dispatcher and asked for the help of his girlfriend, who was accused of beating and strangler fig. lost.
When Biloxi police officer Robert Dronette arrived at the couple’s apartment on Judge Secourt Avenue around 11:50 pm on May 20, 2019, he noticed that the lights were off. But after he knocked, the apparently hysterical Wallace answered the door.
According to the exchange camera footage, Wallace appeared to cry and laugh as soon as the policeman encountered him.
“Go, go,” Wallace told the policeman and sent Dronette to the back bedroom. There, police officers found Penny Rain Clark, a 45-year-old twin sister and two mothers, dead on a cold tile floor with her face up.
Clark was naked except for the T-shirt pulled up around his neck and shoulders, officials said, exposing her body to fresh bruises and other injuries. In addition, police said Clark had blood oozing from her black eyes, her nose, mouth, and ears, and a laceration in her head.
Despite trying to save her, Clark died shortly after Biloxi’s merit health.
Former state coroner Mark Rubourne performed an autopsy and determined that Clark had died of a blunt trauma consistent with beating and strangulation.
Her injuries included a bruise on her entire body, he said.
In addition, Le Vaungh said some of Clark’s teeth were knocked out during the attack.
And other testimonies came out in Wallace’s First Class Murder Trial This week at the Harrison County Circuit Court in Biloxi. It is presided over by Judge Christopher Schmidt.
Assistant District Attorneys George Huffman and Allison Baker claim that Clark was a victim of murder due to an injury consistent with a suspected violent attack. With domestic violence..
The state took the proceedings late Wednesday after placing additional witnesses, including Wallace’s sister, Jamie Ratriff, and a forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy.
Attorneys Alan Green, Angela Brown, and Phil Whitman have challenged the prosecutor’s allegations that Wallace had fatally beaten and strangled his girlfriend.
Blood on the walls and floor
When the Biloxi police arrived at the scene, the couple’s bedroom left clues to the alleged attack there.
On-site police body camera footage showed blood on the white sheets and pillows of the bed, and other blood on the tile floor next to Clark’s body.
Police officers said additional blood splatters were found on the wall of the bedroom next to the calendar hanging there, and further on the wall of the hallway next to the thermostat.
Police also found blood stains on the bathroom floor.
Police photographed a bloody cut between Wallace’s two fingers at trial. In previous reports, police also reported that additional blood had splattered under Wallace’s left and right biceps, and that there was additional blood at the tip of his nose.
Ask for help from 911
Wallace called 911 around 11:45 pm on the night of the murder.
When asked when he last saw Clark being conscious and alert before making a call, he did not specify a time, instead “about an hour and a half ago, two hours, three. I told the police that it was “time ago.”
The 911 dispatcher said he was upset and enthusiastic about Clark’s help.
The dispatcher said during the call that he had transferred Wallace to an emergency care worker to explain to Clark how to perform CPR to save her.
In the recording of the 911 call, I heard Wallace counting “1, 2, 3” for alleged chest compressions on Clark.
Shortly thereafter, police arrived at the scene.
History of alcohol and violence
When the police investigation first began, Wallace’s sister, Jamie Ratriff, told police that her brother had a history of physical violence.
Ratriff even stated that he had to disband the battle between Wallace and Clark about a week ago when he reported seeing his brother holding Clark in his “neck.”
In addition, Latriff told Clark that he had noticed another injury a week before she died.
“Her face was black and blue,” she said. “Her ribs were messed up. She said she fell in front of … (casino), but she can’t help.”
Latriff said her brother talked about Clark and didn’t want to take her to the hospital for treatment.
The defense asked Ratriff about his previous allegations that Clark was suffering from mental illness and seizures.
In response, Latriff said, “She has seizures and is a beautiful woman.”
On Clark’s death day, Latriff and her husband went to the couple’s apartment, undressed, and taught Clark how to cook Wallace’s chicken dishes.
According to the prosecutor, Mr. Wallace wanted to cook his chicken in a particular way.
In the picture of the crime scene, Clark’s meal was sitting on the stove as it was.
Latriff and her husband later drove a couple to a nearby Shell station to buy beer for Wallace. The couple was already there to buy Wallace beer.
During the visit, Ratriff spent time teaching Clark how to make chicken, after which his sister and her husband said they had left.
Suspect responds to a call from his sister
After leaving the couple’s apartment that night, my sister called the police several times but said she didn’t get a reply.
She said Wallace returned her phone after a while.
She told police that her brother sounded fine and that the couple had just had sex in the shower, where they showed that everything was okay. Latriff said he thought Clark was heard in the background during the call.
Wallace did not answer other calls that night, including a call from a number listed as his father’s number in his contact list.
The next call that came out was made by Wallace.
He dialed 911 at 11:43 pm
The judge will give instructions to the jury on Thursday morning before closing arguments begin.
