Jack Clark was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of Melisa Garcia
According to court documents Jack Clark was watching Melissa Garcia talk on a payphone. When she finished her call Clark would stab her in the shoulder and force her into her car where she would be sexually assaulted and stabbed repeatedly
Jack Clark was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Jack Clark would be executed by lethal injection on January 9 2001
Jack Clark Photos
Jack Clark FAQ
When Was Jack Clark Executed
Jack Clark was executed on January 9 2001
Jack Clark Case
As he lay waiting to die, former Lubbock resident Jack Wade Clark asked forgiveness for a murder that just a week earlier he denied committing. Tuesday night, the state of Texas executed Clark, 37, for the 1989 kidnapping, rape and murder of 23-year-old Melisa Ann Garcia of Slaton.
“First, I would like to say to the family that I am sorry, and I do ask their forgiveness,” Clark said, strapped to a gurney in the death chamber. During an interview on death row last week, Clark told a reporter that he was innocent of Garcia’s murder. “I know I didn’t do that,” he had said. “I know for a fact I didn’t rape that girl. Never happened.”
While in Lubbock County Jail soon after the murder, Clark bragged about the rape and murder to another inmate, who testified against him at his trial. Evidence also showed that Clark was a military deserter, was accused of assaulting and attempting to rape a relative, threatening child welfare workers, neglecting and abusing his children and of threatening and assaultive behavior toward neighbors.
Mary Jane Garcia, Melisa Garcia’s mother, said she doesn’t believe Clark’s last-minute apology. “He said he was sorry, but I don’t think he meant it,” Garcia said after witnessing Clark’s death. “I needed to be here because of what he did to my daughter. Seeing him take his last breath made me feel better.”
The Slaton woman plans to witness a second execution next month. Adolph Gil Hernandez, the man who robbed and killed her mother, is scheduled for lethal injection Feb. 8. “I’m praying. God is helping me. I know I can come again,” Garcia said. “That way these two chapters in my life can be closed. I’ve been waiting 12 years. Once it’s over, I’ll never remember (the killers’) names again.”
During Clark’s final statement, he invited prison officials and Garcia’s family to attend his funeral and quoted from the Bible. “My last words will be: And he was the light that shineth in the hearts of all men from the foundations of the world. If we confess our sins, he is just and true to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Peace and goodness.”
Clark died at 6:27 p.m., nine minutes after the lethal drugs started flowing into his arms. He fixed his gaze toward five friends and his priest, who held hands and prayed as Clark emitted two gasping breaths and closed his eyes. One of the women sobbed.
Garcia said Clark fared better than her daughter and mother. “I think when you commit a crime that bad, you should suffer. He didn’t suffer. He just closed his eyes and went to sleep,” she said. “My daughter didn’t die like that. She was a really good person. She helped people. Everybody loved her.”
Clark abducted Garcia as she talked on a pay phone in the early morning hours of Oct. 16, 1989. He stabbed her in the shoulder, forced her into her car and drove to an isolated area near East 40th Street and Southeast Drive. Clark beat and repeatedly raped Garcia, then fatally stabbed her in the heart. He took her car, parking it about a block from his home. About 12 hours later, Clark called police and said he had seen a body in a vacant lot. Officers found Garcia lying among tall weeds and obscured by a concrete wall.
Detective Rey Martinez said Lubbock police considered Clark a suspect from the beginning. After about a week of police scrutiny, Clark called Martinez from work. “He said, ‘This is Jack. Y’all can come get me, but you better be ready to kill me,’ ” Martinez said. “I asked him why, and he said, ‘Because I killed that girl.’ “We pretty much thought he wanted a confrontation.”
Detectives set up surveillance at Clark’s workplace. As they watched, Clark came out and drove away in a van. Detectives followed Clark, who led them to the murder scene, Martinez said. He emerged from the van brandishing a knife. When officers drew their guns, Clark surrendered. “He had it in him, and he had the opportunity, and he thought he could get away with it,” Martinez said of the murder. “I think when it finally dawned on him, he knew he was caught.”
Clark confessed to police. DNA tests conducted within the past year confirm that Clark raped Garcia, Criminal District Attorney Bill Sowder said. The tests were not yet available during Clark’s 1991 trial. Police and prosecutors agreed to voluntarily submit the evidence to the Department of Public Safety crime lab. Had they not done so, the state Board of Pardons and Parole likely would have recommended delaying Clark’s execution in order to perform the tests, Sowder said. “They (board members) were really concerned about it,” he said. “Even though he had confessed, I have no doubt they would have put that execution off.
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