NEWPORT -- A Delaware man charged last month in the 1967 slaying of a North Little Rock man is challenging an Arkansas governor's warrant that will release him into the state's custody.
James Leon Clay, 67, of Georgetown, Del., was arrested at his home March 10 in the June 1967 shooting death of James Ricks, 27, and has been held in jail since, awaiting an extradition hearing.
Prosecuting Attorney Henry Boyce said Clay was arrested after he was recorded telling a former prison cellmate that he killed Ricks in Arkansas 48 years ago. He faces a first-degree murder charge when he returns to Arkansas, Boyce said.
Jackson County Sheriff David Lucas said last week that he obtained a warrant from Gov. Asa Hutchinson seeking to release Clay to the state. Officials scheduled a hearing in New Jersey in Sussex County Superior Court for Friday, but then changed it to the day before.
Robert Robinson, a public defender for the state of Delaware who is representing Clay, said Tuesday that he was not notified of the scheduling change and did not attend the hearing.
Robinson said he now plans to challenge Hutchinson's warrant on two points.
The public defender said Clay was not served the extradition warrant within 30 days of his arrest, as law requires. An arrest affidavit that outlined the state's case against Clay was not notarized, he added.
"The paperwork was not difficult to do," Robinson said. "But it wasn't done right. [Clay] doesn't want to go back to Arkansas. He wants to fight this."
Robinson said officials will hold a hearing Tuesday in Delaware to determine whether Hutchinson's warrant is valid.
In the arrest affidavit, Lucas wrote that Clay and his brother, Leon Junior Clay, robbed a Little Rock pawnshop. The two were on foot when they found Ricks sleeping in his car near railroad tracks in North Little Rock. According to the affidavit, James Clay shot Ricks through the car window and injured him.
The Clays then put Ricks in the car's trunk and drove to Newport, where they stopped, the affidavit said.
Lucas wrote in the affidavit that James Clay told Ricks he was free to go, but then shot him in the back of the head.
Leon Junior Clay has since died, officials said.
While James Clay was serving a three-year sentence in the Sussex County jail in Georgetown, Del., for attempted armed robbery, he told a cellmate that he killed Ricks, the cellmate has said. Clay was released in August and had been on supervised probation since.
On Dec. 28, Clay's former cellmate wore a recording device and spoke with Clay about the homicide while in a parole office in Georgetown.
"If looks could kill, I'd be dead 10 times," Clay was recorded telling the former cellmate. Had he been charged with the slaying, he would "have gotten the death penalty because Arkansas kills a lot of people," he said.
Robinson said he expects Clay will be released into Arkansas custody eventually.
He said he has spoken with members of the Arkansas Public Defender Commission about Clay's case.
"Ultimately, this is done to create a delay," he said. "He doesn't want to go back to that state."
Lucas said he has contacted a transport service that will take Clay back to Newport once the extradition is approved. He expects that Clay will be returned by the end of the month.
"He is fighting this extradition every way he can," the sheriff said of Clay. "But he's fighting the inevitable.
"He is going to come back to Arkansas."
State Desk on 04/16/2015