Nearly 17 years after an El Dorado florist was stabbed to death in his store on a busy thoroughfare, a man who contends he was his lover, not his killer, is to stand trial in March.
Authorities say James E. Clemons, a convicted robber, stabbed Billy Ponder 18 times in broad daylight in 1992. They claim to have found Clemons' DNA on the blue jeans Ponder wore as he lay dying on his shop floor.
But Clemons' lawyer is arguing that the DNA specimen is from a tryst, and that no evidence shows his client repeatedly plunged a weapon into the 48-year-old Boy Scout leader and father of two.
"They found James' semen on Mr. Ponder's pants, and that's it," Little Rock attorney Rickey Hicks said.
That was it, by Hicks' estimation, until prosecutors recently revealed they plan to present evidence of a jail-cell confession at trial.
Trial was set for this week, but news of a reported confession took Hicks by surprise and prompted him to seek more time to vet the development.
Prosecutors plan to call an inmate to testify that Clemons admitted doing the killing. But Hicks said that the inmate denied that claim when Hicks questioned him about it.
A judge reset the trial for March 16.
For years Ponder's murder remained a mystery that confounded the detectives who reviewed the file in hopes a fresh set of eyes could crack the case.
A break came in 2007 when a new forensic analysis of Ponder's clothes revealed the DNA matched that of Clemons. The 46-year-old former El Dorado resident had served two prisonterms before Ponder's killing.
Until that point Clemons never surfaced as a suspect.
"All you're waiting for is something new to come along, some new technology," said El Dorado police Capt. David Smith, who credits advances in DNA analysis in helping lead to an arrest.
Last year detectives interviewed Clemons in Wisconsin, where he has lived since some time after the murder.
He first denied knowing Ponder, reports say. But then Clemons acknowledged that he was at the shop the day of the murder and "took some money from him," police wrote in an arrest warrant.
Clemons is charged withcapital murder and aggravated robbery. If convicted, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
"We believe we have adequate evidence to proceed and achieve a conviction," said Jeff Rogers, a deputy prosecutor trying the case.
Authorities acknowledge that building a case so many years later has its challenges.
Bill Hickman, who headed criminal investigations at the El Dorado Police Department when Ponder was killed, said he had to scan the old crime- scene photos to refresh his memory.
"I know it's very difficult to pull all that back together after so many years," said Hickman, who now heads investigations at theUnion County sheriff's office.
Prosecutors have offered Clemons plea deals.
"He staunchly defends his innocence and says he did not do this, had nothing to do with it and is not pleading guilty to anything," Hicks said.
He said some evidence such as fingerprints found on the cash register could lead to another suspect. The prints don't belong to the Ponder family or to Clemons, Hicks said.
The arrest warrant mentions only that fingerprints were lifted from the business. It does not elaborate.
Rogers, who would not comment on the assertions, said he didn't want to "try the case" over the phone.
Hicks has tried to get the charges dropped, arguing the state's evidence only puts Clemons at the crime scene but doesn't implicate him in the killing.
Prosecutors offered no other evidence in their response and said only hat "there exists adequate probable cause that would lead a cautious man to believe that a crime has been committed by" Clemons.
A judge agreed, and Clemons,who has two young sons in Wisconsin, has remained jailed.
For Ponder's family, it's too difficult to discuss. Becky Hogan, Ponder's widow, who has since remarried, discovered her slain husband that April evening when she went to the shop.
She had become worried when he was late getting home and didn't call.
"We're just praying for closure," she said.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 01/21/2009