Updated with additional information.
CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – After three days of testimony and an hour and 45 minutes of deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of guilty Wednesday for a man charged with the murder of a 55-year-old Walmart employee.
At around 11:54 p.m. on the night of March 1, 2022, Clarksville Police responded to shots fired at the Walmart Supercenter on Fort Campbell Boulevard. They found 55-year-old William “Billy” Eakes Jr., a Walmart maintenance employee, lying on the ground at the entrance, unresponsive. Eakes died from his injuries. Christopher Clark was found in the area and charged with first-degree murder.
Evidence and testimony
On Wednesday, Special Agent Manfredi, a TBI forensic scientist, explained how her lab analyzed DNA evidence collected from Clark against the gun found by K-9 police dog Arlo in lieu of fingerprints. The results came back inconclusive, neither including or excluding Clark as the shooter.
However, Ladd Kuykendall, a TBI special agent specializing in firearms and tool marks identification, said the gun collected by Arlo was a direct match to the shell casings at the crime scene.
PREVIOUSLY: Walmart murder trial: 3 takeaways from testimony, including what witnesses saw, dog finding gun
Lindsey Anderson, an expert in GSR analysis, said gunshot residue was found on Clark’s skin. His clothing wasn’t tested, but Anderson told the court that TBI policy says if the skin test returns a positive result, there is no need to test the clothing.
Smith suggests it could be self-defense
During closing arguments, Clark’s defense attorney, Gregory Smith, took a pocket watch from his coat and stared at it for a few seconds before he stowed it away.
“You’ll remember when we started, I told you there were three questions that were going to boil down to what you have to decide,” Smith told the jury. “You have to decide that the same person at Walmart is the same person you saw later. Is that Mr. Clark? That’s your decision. We talked about the semicolon, the break. Is there one continuous act? Or is this a series of different things? And the third: innocent until proven guilty.”
“We talked about the ingredients of a chocolate chip cookie. We talked about having all the ingredients, including chocolate chips, or you may have something but you don’t have a chocolate chip cookie,” Smith said.
Smith said if the shooter were his client, then premeditation would require some forethought. He told the jury that if this was planned, why would the person committing the crime wear bright red clothes, leave on foot with no car, and hide only a minute away from the crime scene?
Smith reminded the jury of the testimony from Walmart employees and their stance on theft prevention. “The training was, show them the door, and they leave. It’s over. You lost a bag of chips, you lost a jerky, you lost a Coke. … But you didn’t lose a life,” Smith said.
He then told the jury to consider his client’s height and then the victim’s. “What happens when suddenly you got someone twice your size following you?” Smith asked. “You don’t have a whole lot of time to think; it’s that fight or flight. It’s that semicolon.”
Nash argues ‘This isn’t chocolate chip cookies’
“This isn’t chocolate chip cookies, this is serious,” District Attorney General Robert Nash said during his closing arguments.
“I’ve been thinking about it … is there a ‘why’ to justify what you’ve seen that occurred at Walmart on March 1, 2022? There is no ‘why.’ But there is a ‘what,’ and there is a ‘who.'” Nash said everything in the case leads back to Clark.
He explained that the act of pre-meditation is like running a red light. The second you decide, no matter if you think you’re going too fast to stop or if you think you have a chance of making it, the moment you make that decision is considered premeditation.
“Mr. Clark had the presence of mind to set his belongings down. … It wasn’t that he was startled and dropped everything and ran and shot recklessly; that didn’t happen,” Nash said. “He intentionally leveled the gun on him, approaching him, walking to him, and he killed him.
“This is way beyond a reasonable doubt. … Or, Mr. Clark is the most unluckiest person on the face of the planet,” Nash said. “That there’s another person with the same getup he had on that night, that shows up to Walmart, somehow acquiring a gun from the place he was just at, and then that person dumps the gun in the woods where Mr. Clark was seen strolling out of.
“Now, I don’t normally like to be flippant like this, but that’s the ridiculousness. But that also shows what this case is. Sometimes there’s a lot of proof, and it’s just absolute. That could be nobody other than Mr. Clark.”
New charges presented
After the jury returned their verdict, finding Clark guilty on all charges, new charges were presented to the jurors. The two new charges were convicted felon in possession of a weapon and convicted felon with drug offense in possession of a weapon.
Clark had previously been convicted six times: in 1999, 2000 and 2021. The offenses included aggravated assault, aggravated burglary and reckless endangerment by the use of a deadly weapon. Clark pleaded not guilty to all charges.
After five minutes of deliberation, the jury returned with all guilty verdicts.
On the first-degree murder charge, Clark faces 40 years to life in prison. He faces additional sentencing on several other charges. Sentencing will be May 15.
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