April 9, 2025 • 23 mins
He was hallucinating, paranoid, and completely out of touch with reality—then he threw his child off of a balcony.
On October 24, 2020, Nicole Poole’s nightmare began at 3:40 a.m. in Las Vegas when her fiancé threw their 7-week-old daughter off a second-floor balcony. While Nicole begged her baby to breathe, Clarence Martin Jr. lit their apartment on fire, fled the scene, crashed multiple cars, and ended up half-naked on an airport tarmac in a stolen TSA uniform.
What made him snap—and what really happened in the hours before baby London’s death?
This is the case of Clarence Martin Jr.
Poll Question: Do you think Clarence should be in prison or a mental institution? Share your thoughts on our Patreon or Spotify!
(01:13) Baby London was thrown off second story balcony by fiance Clarence Martin Jr.
(10:24) Sentencing
(17:26) Poll question for this episode is do you think he should be in prison
(19:33) Minutia
(22:31) April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month
As always, if you suspect child abuse, please reach out to the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-CHILD or visit childhelp.org. Your vigilance can make a difference.
**************************************
Past Episodes Mentioned in this case: Lisa Snyder https://wp.me/pdbuVw-WXu
**************************************
Do you have thoughts about this case, or is there a specific true crime case you’d like to hear about? Let me know with an email or a voice message: https://murderandlove.com/contact
Find the sources used in this episode and learn more about how to support Love and Murder: Heartbreak to Homicide and gain access to even more cases, including bonus episodes, ad-free and intro-free cases, case files and more at: https://murderandlove.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-and-murder-heartbreak-to-homicide--4348896/support.
On October 24, 2020, Nicole Poole’s nightmare began at 3:40 a.m. in Las Vegas when her fiancé threw their 7-week-old daughter off a second-floor balcony. While Nicole begged her baby to breathe, Clarence Martin Jr. lit their apartment on fire, fled the scene, crashed multiple cars, and ended up half-naked on an airport tarmac in a stolen TSA uniform.
What made him snap—and what really happened in the hours before baby London’s death?
This is the case of Clarence Martin Jr.
Poll Question: Do you think Clarence should be in prison or a mental institution? Share your thoughts on our Patreon or Spotify!
(01:13) Baby London was thrown off second story balcony by fiance Clarence Martin Jr.
(10:24) Sentencing
(17:26) Poll question for this episode is do you think he should be in prison
(19:33) Minutia
(22:31) April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month
As always, if you suspect child abuse, please reach out to the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-CHILD or visit childhelp.org. Your vigilance can make a difference.
**************************************
Past Episodes Mentioned in this case: Lisa Snyder https://wp.me/pdbuVw-WXu
**************************************
Do you have thoughts about this case, or is there a specific true crime case you’d like to hear about? Let me know with an email or a voice message: https://murderandlove.com/contact
Find the sources used in this episode and learn more about how to support Love and Murder: Heartbreak to Homicide and gain access to even more cases, including bonus episodes, ad-free and intro-free cases, case files and more at: https://murderandlove.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-and-murder-heartbreak-to-homicide--4348896/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
A panic nine one one call in the early hours
of a quiet October morning revealed a nightmare no one
could have imagined. A newborn thrown from a balcony, a
fire set, and a suspect found half naked at an airport.
But what pushed a father to unleash such chaos in
(00:22):
just one night. Welcome Lambs, Welcome to Love and Murder,
Heartbreak to Homicide, your midweek mini edition. I know it's
coming out late, but wait till the end and I'll
give you the reason why it's coming out so late today.
In the meantime, Hi, my name is Kai. I invite
you to go ahead, take a listen all the way
to the end, and if you like my retelling of
(00:43):
this episode, go ahead and leave me a five star
review on whatever platform you're on. If you're on a
platform that could leave a review. Also, don't forget to
subscribe so you don't miss any more true crime cases.
And if you didn't know, you can also subscribe on
our patreon Patreon dot com forward Slash Love and Murder.
You can subscribe for free and you do get some
benefits of being a free subscriber, or you can join
the Lambfam and get bonus episodes, case extras, no intros,
(01:08):
all of these exclusive benefits by joining the lambfampatreon dot com.
Ford slash a Love and Murder Now without further ado,
Because I know I made you wait all these hours already.
Let's get into your midweek mini. On October twenty fourth,
twenty twenty two, at around three forty in the morning,
Nicole Poole called nine to one one from her apartment
in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her baby, just seven weeks old,
(01:32):
had been thrown off of a second story balcony by
her fiancee, thirty two year old Clarence Martin Junior. She
was still holding the phone when she ran downstairs and
found her daughter, London, lying in the parking lot. A
neighbor joined her and started as CPR. Nicole was pannikin
and I cannot even imagine her daughter wasn't breathing. Just
(01:57):
hours before, they had all been in bed together. What
the hell went so wrong? Clarence had woken up and
started kicking the coal and the baby. She got up
and tried to move to the living room to get
away from him, but he followed her. Then he grabbed
London and walked out to the balcony. A few seconds later,
he came back inside without the baby. The baby had
(02:20):
fallen more than twenty two feet. She died at four
fifty five am. She wasn't even two months old yet.
The coroner reported the cause of death as blunt force
head trauma, causing catastrophic damage to the infants developing skull
and brain. While Nicoleon and neighbor were trying to save London,
(02:41):
Clarence went back into the apartment and started a fire
in the living room. Their family dog, a poodle, was
trapped in a cage and died from the smoke and heat.
Seven other apartments in the building had to be evacuated
while firefighters put out the blaze. As all of this
tragedy devastation in chaos, what's happening? Clarence got into Nicole's
(03:04):
white Mercedes and fled the scene. He slammed into a
Toyota on the way out of the complex, then caused
two more crashes while speeding away. At one point, he
rolled the Mercedes on the two fifteen beltway, ditched the
car at the airport, and somehow made it into a
restricted area by crawling onto a luggage conveyor belt. What
(03:25):
in the world is going on here? Once inside the airport,
he found a TSA uniform shirt in the employee breakroom
and a yellow safety vest and put them on. He
then took off his pants and headed for the tarmac.
So that's a picture. He's in a TSA uniform shirt,
he has a safety vest on, no pants, and he's
heading for the tarmac. Airport surveillance caught him put in
(03:49):
various items into an American Airlines van before airport security
in Las Vegas. Police arrested him. The chaos, the what
the hell? And while they were cuffing him, Clarence was yelling,
quote burn female dog, Jeffrey Street, Jeffrey Street. He didn't
say female dog, but you know what I'm saying, And
(04:10):
the hell Jeffrey Street. Okay, that's how the night ended. Now,
I know you heard all of this and your brain
is like literally still at the beginning, even trying to
wrap your head around that part. So let's find out
what the hell. According to the arrest report and court testimony,
Nicole told police that her and Clarence had been in
(04:32):
a relationship for four years and he had a long
history of mental health issues. Oh. She said that although
she knew about Clarence's previous mental health challenges, she'd never
witnessed it for herself until three days before. This is
when she saw changes in his behavior, and that he
(04:52):
had completely stopped eating and sleeping for those entire three days. Now,
if you know any and I can't say every single
body has these warning signs, but the ones that I
have dealt with have these warning signs. And if you
know anything, these are the warning signs that an episode
(05:13):
is about to come on. But as she said, I
can't fault her. I can't fault anybody actually, because, as
she said, she's never seen it before. She knew the history.
But apparently he was on a calm streak and everything
was good. Maybe he was taking his medicines, maybe he wasn't.
But something made him snap, Something made this happen, So
let's continue. Throughout their four year relationship, Clarence's behavior had
(05:35):
apparently remained stable enough that they had built a life together,
even welcome in Baby London less than two months earlier.
One witness told police that she saw Clarence leave in
the apartment while shouting, quote burne, female dog, burn this
is what you get for cheating on me. Investigators also
found out that Clarence had recently lost his job during
(05:57):
the pandemic, potentially exacerbated his mental health struggles. I told
you something had to have happened. So basically Clarence just
had the right cocktail for psychological distress. He lost his job,
he has a brand new baby, the pandemic, and as
you know, everything going on during the pandemic, and in
(06:20):
my opinion, I think he was just stressed beyond probably
wondering how he's going to be able to support his
new family, worried about his soon to be wife and
his baby with no money coming in.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I mean, if he was aware of what was going
on with his mind, he should have checked himself into
the hospital. But people with this issue are not always
aware of when it's going downhill. And then Nicole had
never witnessed his mental problem, so she wouldn't have even
known the warning signs. So it's just it's just all
(06:53):
very very sad. In court, his defense attorney Betsy Allen,
said Clarence had been diagnosed with schizo effective disorder and
was quote so delusional that he believed he was in
a movie. She claimed that he had little memory of
what happened. Quote, that's how delusional he was at the
time of this crime. After he was arrested, Clarence was
(07:16):
booked on thirteen felony charges open murder, child abuse, animal cruelty, arson,
multiple counts of battery, attempted murder, and assault with a
deadly weapon. So he got the charge of open murder
for killing London by throwing her off the second floor balcony.
He got the charge of first degree arson up obviously
(07:37):
for setting the apartment on fire. He got the charge
of cruelty to animal, which is actually first degree torture
for the death of the poodle who was in a
cage and died of heat and smoking elation. He got
the child abuse neglect or endangerment resulting in substantial bodily harm.
So those were two counts for the abuse of London
(07:58):
before her death. Remember she said he was kicking them,
so they counted that as another count, and the second
count was for the actual act of throwing her off
the balcony. Then he got three counts of battery with
a deadly weapon and that was because of the hit
and run crashes, and those crashes involved at least three
(08:20):
other cars, including rolling her car over on the beltway.
Then he got the charge of battery with a deadly
weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm because at least one
of those people in those car crashes were in the
car when he crashed into the car, so they ended
up getting serious injuries, and he got charged with that.
(08:42):
He had a charge of attempted murder with a deadly
weapon for intentionally ramon vehicles with his cars were in
the chase, which the prosecutors said was attempted murder. He
got the charge of assault with a deadly weapon, and
they were saying this is possibly because of his Iraq
and aggressive behavior during or after the crashes. It's also
(09:04):
could be linked to him threatening others while while running.
He got the charge of attempted murder with a deadly
weapon against a victim sixty year older because one of
the people that he hit with the car was sixty
years older. So this elevated that initial chart and then
added a vulnerable victim enhancement to it. And then he
(09:26):
got the charge of battery with a deadly weapon resulting
in substantial bodily harm against a victim sixty year older.
And this was tied to the same elderly victim because
they were seriously injured during the incident. Throughout the proceedings,
both the defense and prosecution, now this is interesting, acknowledged
that Clarence did have a documented history of mental health issues,
(09:50):
and court records confirmed his diagnosis. The defense presented evidence.
The defense presented evidence detailing how this serious ment mental
illness affected his perception of reality and decision making capabilities.
This condition, characterized by symptoms of both schizophrenia and mood disorders,
(10:11):
causes significant impairment in daily functioning. Documentation presented to the
court describes schizo effective disorder as triggering paranoia, delusion, and
severely impaired judgment. In cases similar to Clarence's, patients often
demonstrate quote grossly irrational behavior and take actions that they
(10:32):
are quote unable to control due to their condition. And
let me tell you the people that I know with
this similar diagnosis, I can't say it's exactly the same,
but it's very very similar. They say that too. They
say they cannot control what they're doing. One person says
the voices like really, they hear the voice in it.
(10:55):
It's like you should do this, you should do this
and it's really hard to ignore nor the compulsion and
the voices. This is what they say, and we have
to understand this is their mind, the chemicals in their brain.
You know what I'm saying. And your brain controls every
function in your body. But the chemicals in their brain
is telling them to do xyz and xyz. Chief Deputy
(11:18):
District Attorney Parker Brooks acknowledged Clarence's mental health issues, but
urged the judge to remember the victims, Baby London and
Nicole and Clarence was found guilty by a jury on
October twenty twenty four. In sentence in, prosecutors asked for
a life sentence with the possibility of parole after forty
(11:39):
nine and a half years. Defense attorneys argued that Clarence's
actions stemmed from his untreated mental illness, justifying a reduced
sentence with parole eligibility after twenty five years. Instead, Judge
Carly Kearney went with the prosecutor's request. See I don't
agree with this quote. I don't say lightly. This is
(12:01):
the worst case I've ever seen. It boggles my mind.
Nicole sat in the court for sentence in and told
the judge that quote, she doesn't feel like the same
person since losing her daughter, and in relation to Clarence, quote,
he just needs help. But she also admitted that she
didn't know the right punishment for him. Her daughter was dead,
her dog was dead, and her fiance was gone and
(12:23):
her life was shattered, just all in one night. Clarence
was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of
parole after forty nine and a half years, so basically
life in prison. He'd been given credit for oney five
hundred and fifty one days that he'd already spent in custody,
and he's currently being held in a psychiatric ward. The
(12:44):
court's decision to impose life imprisonment with parole eligibility after
forty nine years represented one of the harshest penalties in
recent Nevada infanticide cases. And that's what I was gonna say.
That's kind of wow, especially if all of y'all acknowledged
that this dude was not in his right mind. Why okay,
(13:07):
let's continue. Advocacy groups for child victims expressed strong support
for Judge Kearney's maximum sentence decision. I don't think people
are understanding what's going on here. I don't think people
understand that this dude literally thought he was in a
movie and he really didn't know this was happening in
real life. In contrast, mental health advocates pointed to the
(13:29):
case as evidence of systemic failures in identifying and treating
severe psychological disorders before they escalate to violence exactly. Legal
experts said that in fanticide cases in Nevada typically received
severe penalties, but Clarences stood out for its particularly horrific circumstances,
so it was used to serve as a precedent for
(13:51):
similar cases. How can you in a comparable Nevada case,
defendant Ray Shawn Coleman faced first degree murder TAR just
for child abuse resulting in death. Unlike Clarence's case, the
jury in Rayshawn's trial found quote mitigating circumstances outweighed the
single aggravated circumstance, resulting in a severe sentence of life
(14:13):
with parole possibility after just twenty years. So even though
he got life, he still got a lesser charge than Clarence.
And I say this is a BS because if you
look at this case, this dude was doing drugs and
you know I was gonna do a different case next week.
But I'm going to cover this case next week so
(14:34):
y'all can see the contrast. And this is what I
was talking about in a previous case, the case of
Lisa Snyder. So if you didn't listen to that case,
the link to it is in the show notes below.
And remember if you did listen to it, remember she
hung her kids and then blamed it on her kids,
and her defense tried to blame mental health, but she
has no history of this whatsoever. In Clarence's case, is
(14:57):
clearly documented that he has ment health issues. And even
Nicole was a weird like she knew about it, but
she'd never seen it. So it's different when you know
about it, you hear like stories about it, but you've
never witnessed it. It's completely different. And even she doesn't
hold it against him. I'm gonna say, allegedly based on
(15:18):
what I got from her quotes in the report saying
that you know a quote, he just needs help because
she knows he wasn't in his right mind. He was
probably a great father and boyfriend up until that point,
and that just happened out of nowhere. I'm not saying
he should be free running around to hurt himself or
anyone else. But I also believe he shouldn't be in prison.
He should possibly be in a mental clinic for the
(15:40):
rest of his life, continuously getting help. And I'm gonna
tell you one thing. I'm gonna tell you this based
on the people that I know, and this is completely
around the board. Now, I know there's gonna be some
people who call who write it and you don't know
what you're talking about. Whatever I'm talking based on my
experience on across the board, based on my experience with
the people that I know that have this kind of
(16:01):
mental health issues. When he came back to Clarity and
he was told what he did, I'm gonna let you
know right now that he was harder on himself than
anyone could be. He probably believes that he should rot
in prison, and he probably will never forgive himself. Now, okay,
think about this. Equate it to sleepwalking. You're sleepwalking, you
(16:26):
think you're in a dream, and you do this to
your child. Then you wake up and find out that, oh,
it wasn't actually a dream. You actually did this to
your child. How would you feel? You know what I'm saying,
that's what you should equate it to and these people
are like, well, we want to show a harsh punishment
and set the precedent, set the precedent for what. He
(16:48):
had no freaking clue he was doing it, and is
documented across the board and defense, prosecution and the judge
all agreed. So he was not somebody who was playing
the mental health health card. He actually has the mental
health issue. So what the precedent are you setting that
you don't give off frick about mental health? Fuck that.
(17:10):
We just need to make sure we put all these
people away. Now you have him in jail. He's kicking
his own ass because he did this to his precious daughter,
and you have him in jail instead of a mental institution.
Get in help. How does this make sense? Anyway? This
is a sad case all around. I want to hear
your thoughts on it. Leave them below for me as usual,
(17:33):
and I'll put out a poll, and the poll question
for this episode is going to be do you think
he should be in prison? Or do you think he
should be in a mental institution? And please don't just
focus on the horrible thing he did. Yes, he did
a horrible thing, and I'm telling you right now, he's
kicking his own ass. He is beating himself up. He
(17:53):
cannot believe he did this. I'm telling you right now,
that's how this man feels. Look at the whole picture.
Don't just look at that. He was not in his
right mind. He was gone. Nobody was home. You have
to understand mental health, real mental health, not people playing
(18:14):
mental health, real mental health. His mind was gone. That's
why I said equate it to sleepwalk in. Do you
whatever you dream about, do you now wake up and say,
you know what, in my dream, I was cheating on
my husband, So on I'm a cheater? Do you do that?
You can't control your dreams. It's a freaking dream. So
(18:36):
look at the whole picture, and then go ahead and
answer the poll. Do you think he should be in
prison or do you think he should be in a
mental institution? Those poles are gonna be on the Patreon
and it's gonna be available for free, so you can
sign up for free on the Patreon patreon dot com
for it Slash Love and Murder. It's also gonna be
available on a Spotify, So if you listen to this
on Spotify, then you can answer the poll question. There
(18:57):
you already know where I sit with it, I don't
think he should be in prison. I think he should
be in a mental institution. And not only does he
need to understand that this is not his fault, he
just needs to be able to take care of his
mental health issues on a whole. And that is that
for this case. That's a horrible, horrible case. I feel
(19:19):
bad for everybody evolved. It's just a case where you
know what I'm saying, it's like there's no winner. There's
no winner. You know, it's just everybody. It's just a
sad case. But shifting gears, I did tell you I
was gonna let you know why the episode came out
late and just why it's been coming out late these
(19:39):
past couple weeks. As you know, I do these episodes
by myself. So if anything goes wrong in my life,
like anything is like my timeline is thrown off at all,
then it just throws everything off. And that's just what's
been happening. Had to take my car to the shop.
I had to do this. I was just away from
my desk for so long. I wasn't coming back to
(20:00):
my desk until like evening time. So you know, imagine
you have a nine to five job. You're supposed to
do all your tasks between nine to five, but you
don't get to your desk till five. Plus you have
to cook dinner plus plus well you know what I'm saying.
So that's just what's been happening. And I'm just like,
I'm trying not to beat myself up because I hate
when I don't get the episode out on time. But
(20:22):
it's just me. It's only me here. I have nobody
helping me, and so I can only do what I
can do. So I'm just like telling myself, as long
as you get the episode out, you get the episode out,
my lambs will understand. Well, I hope you all understand,
and you know, as long as they get their episode,
they'll get their episode. And speaking of that, there are
(20:43):
going to be some changes coming up to Lamb and
once I figure out solidify I have an idea, a
loose idea of the changes, but once I solidify the changes,
I will let you know about what's going on. I
actually want to grant for the podcast and I do
have a set of podcasts. Coach is helping me with
Love and Murder to make it the best that it
(21:04):
can be. The reason I won the grant is because
I pitched my podcast and I told them what makes
this true crime podcast different from others, and they completely
agree with how I'm putting out my episodes, the messages
that I'm portraying, and everything like that. They listen to
the episodes, they loved it. They loved my retaell and
(21:24):
I don't want to say they loved the cases obviously,
but they understood like the messages I was putting out,
and they really want this podcast to be successful to
continue with the messages that it's putting out. So with
that being said, there's a lot of stuff happening in
the background, and so there's gonna be a couple changes
to the podcast. And when I solidify those changes, I
(21:44):
will let y'all know it's not gonna be anything bad.
So don't be like, oh my god, she's leaving us. No,
I'm not. But I just want to give your heads
up that there are gonna be some changes, good changes
in the near future, and I can't wait to tell
you all about it. So don't forget to go ahead
and answer the pole question, or you could just leave
(22:04):
your comments below. The pole question is, do you think
you should be in prison or a mental institution, and
next week I'll be doing that other case. You could
just see the clear differences because the absolute bullshit in
the sentence in I just I don't agree with it.
But anyways, that's all I have for you today. I
would have read comments, but the episode's coming out late,
(22:27):
so I still need to edit it and everything and
try and get it out before midnight.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
So AI Jane here because Kai forgot to remind you
that April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. If you
suspect child abuse, call the child Help National child Abuse
Hotline at one eight hundred four a child or one
eight hundred four to two two four four five three,
or go to childhelp dot Org. All calls are toll
free and confidential. The hotline is available twenty four to
(22:54):
seven in more than one hundred and seventy languages. Be vigilant,
be diligent, and don't let fear get in the way
of helping our children.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
That's all I have for you today, and I will
see you in the next episode. Bye.
A panic nine one one call in the early hours
of a quiet October morning revealed a nightmare no one
could have imagined. A newborn thrown from a balcony, a
fire set, and a suspect found half naked at an airport.
But what pushed a father to unleash such chaos in
(00:22):
just one night. Welcome Lambs, Welcome to Love and Murder,
Heartbreak to Homicide, your midweek mini edition. I know it's
coming out late, but wait till the end and I'll
give you the reason why it's coming out so late today.
In the meantime, Hi, my name is Kai. I invite
you to go ahead, take a listen all the way
to the end, and if you like my retelling of
(00:43):
this episode, go ahead and leave me a five star
review on whatever platform you're on. If you're on a
platform that could leave a review. Also, don't forget to
subscribe so you don't miss any more true crime cases.
And if you didn't know, you can also subscribe on
our patreon Patreon dot com forward Slash Love and Murder.
You can subscribe for free and you do get some
benefits of being a free subscriber, or you can join
the Lambfam and get bonus episodes, case extras, no intros,
(01:08):
all of these exclusive benefits by joining the lambfampatreon dot com.
Ford slash a Love and Murder Now without further ado,
Because I know I made you wait all these hours already.
Let's get into your midweek mini. On October twenty fourth,
twenty twenty two, at around three forty in the morning,
Nicole Poole called nine to one one from her apartment
in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her baby, just seven weeks old,
(01:32):
had been thrown off of a second story balcony by
her fiancee, thirty two year old Clarence Martin Junior. She
was still holding the phone when she ran downstairs and
found her daughter, London, lying in the parking lot. A
neighbor joined her and started as CPR. Nicole was pannikin
and I cannot even imagine her daughter wasn't breathing. Just
(01:57):
hours before, they had all been in bed together. What
the hell went so wrong? Clarence had woken up and
started kicking the coal and the baby. She got up
and tried to move to the living room to get
away from him, but he followed her. Then he grabbed
London and walked out to the balcony. A few seconds later,
he came back inside without the baby. The baby had
(02:20):
fallen more than twenty two feet. She died at four
fifty five am. She wasn't even two months old yet.
The coroner reported the cause of death as blunt force
head trauma, causing catastrophic damage to the infants developing skull
and brain. While Nicoleon and neighbor were trying to save London,
(02:41):
Clarence went back into the apartment and started a fire
in the living room. Their family dog, a poodle, was
trapped in a cage and died from the smoke and heat.
Seven other apartments in the building had to be evacuated
while firefighters put out the blaze. As all of this
tragedy devastation in chaos, what's happening? Clarence got into Nicole's
(03:04):
white Mercedes and fled the scene. He slammed into a
Toyota on the way out of the complex, then caused
two more crashes while speeding away. At one point, he
rolled the Mercedes on the two fifteen beltway, ditched the
car at the airport, and somehow made it into a
restricted area by crawling onto a luggage conveyor belt. What
(03:25):
in the world is going on here? Once inside the airport,
he found a TSA uniform shirt in the employee breakroom
and a yellow safety vest and put them on. He
then took off his pants and headed for the tarmac.
So that's a picture. He's in a TSA uniform shirt,
he has a safety vest on, no pants, and he's
heading for the tarmac. Airport surveillance caught him put in
(03:49):
various items into an American Airlines van before airport security
in Las Vegas. Police arrested him. The chaos, the what
the hell? And while they were cuffing him, Clarence was yelling,
quote burn female dog, Jeffrey Street, Jeffrey Street. He didn't
say female dog, but you know what I'm saying, And
(04:10):
the hell Jeffrey Street. Okay, that's how the night ended. Now,
I know you heard all of this and your brain
is like literally still at the beginning, even trying to
wrap your head around that part. So let's find out
what the hell. According to the arrest report and court testimony,
Nicole told police that her and Clarence had been in
(04:32):
a relationship for four years and he had a long
history of mental health issues. Oh. She said that although
she knew about Clarence's previous mental health challenges, she'd never
witnessed it for herself until three days before. This is
when she saw changes in his behavior, and that he
(04:52):
had completely stopped eating and sleeping for those entire three days. Now,
if you know any and I can't say every single
body has these warning signs, but the ones that I
have dealt with have these warning signs. And if you
know anything, these are the warning signs that an episode
(05:13):
is about to come on. But as she said, I
can't fault her. I can't fault anybody actually, because, as
she said, she's never seen it before. She knew the history.
But apparently he was on a calm streak and everything
was good. Maybe he was taking his medicines, maybe he wasn't.
But something made him snap, Something made this happen, So
let's continue. Throughout their four year relationship, Clarence's behavior had
(05:35):
apparently remained stable enough that they had built a life together,
even welcome in Baby London less than two months earlier.
One witness told police that she saw Clarence leave in
the apartment while shouting, quote burne, female dog, burn this
is what you get for cheating on me. Investigators also
found out that Clarence had recently lost his job during
(05:57):
the pandemic, potentially exacerbated his mental health struggles. I told
you something had to have happened. So basically Clarence just
had the right cocktail for psychological distress. He lost his job,
he has a brand new baby, the pandemic, and as
you know, everything going on during the pandemic, and in
(06:20):
my opinion, I think he was just stressed beyond probably
wondering how he's going to be able to support his
new family, worried about his soon to be wife and
his baby with no money coming in.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I mean, if he was aware of what was going
on with his mind, he should have checked himself into
the hospital. But people with this issue are not always
aware of when it's going downhill. And then Nicole had
never witnessed his mental problem, so she wouldn't have even
known the warning signs. So it's just it's just all
(06:53):
very very sad. In court, his defense attorney Betsy Allen,
said Clarence had been diagnosed with schizo effective disorder and
was quote so delusional that he believed he was in
a movie. She claimed that he had little memory of
what happened. Quote, that's how delusional he was at the
time of this crime. After he was arrested, Clarence was
(07:16):
booked on thirteen felony charges open murder, child abuse, animal cruelty, arson,
multiple counts of battery, attempted murder, and assault with a
deadly weapon. So he got the charge of open murder
for killing London by throwing her off the second floor balcony.
He got the charge of first degree arson up obviously
(07:37):
for setting the apartment on fire. He got the charge
of cruelty to animal, which is actually first degree torture
for the death of the poodle who was in a
cage and died of heat and smoking elation. He got
the child abuse neglect or endangerment resulting in substantial bodily harm.
So those were two counts for the abuse of London
(07:58):
before her death. Remember she said he was kicking them,
so they counted that as another count, and the second
count was for the actual act of throwing her off
the balcony. Then he got three counts of battery with
a deadly weapon and that was because of the hit
and run crashes, and those crashes involved at least three
(08:20):
other cars, including rolling her car over on the beltway.
Then he got the charge of battery with a deadly
weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm because at least one
of those people in those car crashes were in the
car when he crashed into the car, so they ended
up getting serious injuries, and he got charged with that.
(08:42):
He had a charge of attempted murder with a deadly
weapon for intentionally ramon vehicles with his cars were in
the chase, which the prosecutors said was attempted murder. He
got the charge of assault with a deadly weapon, and
they were saying this is possibly because of his Iraq
and aggressive behavior during or after the crashes. It's also
(09:04):
could be linked to him threatening others while while running.
He got the charge of attempted murder with a deadly
weapon against a victim sixty year older because one of
the people that he hit with the car was sixty
years older. So this elevated that initial chart and then
added a vulnerable victim enhancement to it. And then he
(09:26):
got the charge of battery with a deadly weapon resulting
in substantial bodily harm against a victim sixty year older.
And this was tied to the same elderly victim because
they were seriously injured during the incident. Throughout the proceedings,
both the defense and prosecution, now this is interesting, acknowledged
that Clarence did have a documented history of mental health issues,
(09:50):
and court records confirmed his diagnosis. The defense presented evidence.
The defense presented evidence detailing how this serious ment mental
illness affected his perception of reality and decision making capabilities.
This condition, characterized by symptoms of both schizophrenia and mood disorders,
(10:11):
causes significant impairment in daily functioning. Documentation presented to the
court describes schizo effective disorder as triggering paranoia, delusion, and
severely impaired judgment. In cases similar to Clarence's, patients often
demonstrate quote grossly irrational behavior and take actions that they
(10:32):
are quote unable to control due to their condition. And
let me tell you the people that I know with
this similar diagnosis, I can't say it's exactly the same,
but it's very very similar. They say that too. They
say they cannot control what they're doing. One person says
the voices like really, they hear the voice in it.
(10:55):
It's like you should do this, you should do this
and it's really hard to ignore nor the compulsion and
the voices. This is what they say, and we have
to understand this is their mind, the chemicals in their brain.
You know what I'm saying. And your brain controls every
function in your body. But the chemicals in their brain
is telling them to do xyz and xyz. Chief Deputy
(11:18):
District Attorney Parker Brooks acknowledged Clarence's mental health issues, but
urged the judge to remember the victims, Baby London and
Nicole and Clarence was found guilty by a jury on
October twenty twenty four. In sentence in, prosecutors asked for
a life sentence with the possibility of parole after forty
(11:39):
nine and a half years. Defense attorneys argued that Clarence's
actions stemmed from his untreated mental illness, justifying a reduced
sentence with parole eligibility after twenty five years. Instead, Judge
Carly Kearney went with the prosecutor's request. See I don't
agree with this quote. I don't say lightly. This is
(12:01):
the worst case I've ever seen. It boggles my mind.
Nicole sat in the court for sentence in and told
the judge that quote, she doesn't feel like the same
person since losing her daughter, and in relation to Clarence, quote,
he just needs help. But she also admitted that she
didn't know the right punishment for him. Her daughter was dead,
her dog was dead, and her fiance was gone and
(12:23):
her life was shattered, just all in one night. Clarence
was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of
parole after forty nine and a half years, so basically
life in prison. He'd been given credit for oney five
hundred and fifty one days that he'd already spent in custody,
and he's currently being held in a psychiatric ward. The
(12:44):
court's decision to impose life imprisonment with parole eligibility after
forty nine years represented one of the harshest penalties in
recent Nevada infanticide cases. And that's what I was gonna say.
That's kind of wow, especially if all of y'all acknowledged
that this dude was not in his right mind. Why okay,
(13:07):
let's continue. Advocacy groups for child victims expressed strong support
for Judge Kearney's maximum sentence decision. I don't think people
are understanding what's going on here. I don't think people
understand that this dude literally thought he was in a
movie and he really didn't know this was happening in
real life. In contrast, mental health advocates pointed to the
(13:29):
case as evidence of systemic failures in identifying and treating
severe psychological disorders before they escalate to violence exactly. Legal
experts said that in fanticide cases in Nevada typically received
severe penalties, but Clarences stood out for its particularly horrific circumstances,
so it was used to serve as a precedent for
(13:51):
similar cases. How can you in a comparable Nevada case,
defendant Ray Shawn Coleman faced first degree murder TAR just
for child abuse resulting in death. Unlike Clarence's case, the
jury in Rayshawn's trial found quote mitigating circumstances outweighed the
single aggravated circumstance, resulting in a severe sentence of life
(14:13):
with parole possibility after just twenty years. So even though
he got life, he still got a lesser charge than Clarence.
And I say this is a BS because if you
look at this case, this dude was doing drugs and
you know I was gonna do a different case next week.
But I'm going to cover this case next week so
(14:34):
y'all can see the contrast. And this is what I
was talking about in a previous case, the case of
Lisa Snyder. So if you didn't listen to that case,
the link to it is in the show notes below.
And remember if you did listen to it, remember she
hung her kids and then blamed it on her kids,
and her defense tried to blame mental health, but she
has no history of this whatsoever. In Clarence's case, is
(14:57):
clearly documented that he has ment health issues. And even
Nicole was a weird like she knew about it, but
she'd never seen it. So it's different when you know
about it, you hear like stories about it, but you've
never witnessed it. It's completely different. And even she doesn't
hold it against him. I'm gonna say, allegedly based on
(15:18):
what I got from her quotes in the report saying
that you know a quote, he just needs help because
she knows he wasn't in his right mind. He was
probably a great father and boyfriend up until that point,
and that just happened out of nowhere. I'm not saying
he should be free running around to hurt himself or
anyone else. But I also believe he shouldn't be in prison.
He should possibly be in a mental clinic for the
(15:40):
rest of his life, continuously getting help. And I'm gonna
tell you one thing. I'm gonna tell you this based
on the people that I know, and this is completely
around the board. Now, I know there's gonna be some
people who call who write it and you don't know
what you're talking about. Whatever I'm talking based on my
experience on across the board, based on my experience with
the people that I know that have this kind of
(16:01):
mental health issues. When he came back to Clarity and
he was told what he did, I'm gonna let you
know right now that he was harder on himself than
anyone could be. He probably believes that he should rot
in prison, and he probably will never forgive himself. Now, okay,
think about this. Equate it to sleepwalking. You're sleepwalking, you
(16:26):
think you're in a dream, and you do this to
your child. Then you wake up and find out that, oh,
it wasn't actually a dream. You actually did this to
your child. How would you feel? You know what I'm saying,
that's what you should equate it to and these people
are like, well, we want to show a harsh punishment
and set the precedent, set the precedent for what. He
(16:48):
had no freaking clue he was doing it, and is
documented across the board and defense, prosecution and the judge
all agreed. So he was not somebody who was playing
the mental health health card. He actually has the mental
health issue. So what the precedent are you setting that
you don't give off frick about mental health? Fuck that.
(17:10):
We just need to make sure we put all these
people away. Now you have him in jail. He's kicking
his own ass because he did this to his precious daughter,
and you have him in jail instead of a mental institution.
Get in help. How does this make sense? Anyway? This
is a sad case all around. I want to hear
your thoughts on it. Leave them below for me as usual,
(17:33):
and I'll put out a poll, and the poll question
for this episode is going to be do you think
he should be in prison? Or do you think he
should be in a mental institution? And please don't just
focus on the horrible thing he did. Yes, he did
a horrible thing, and I'm telling you right now, he's
kicking his own ass. He is beating himself up. He
(17:53):
cannot believe he did this. I'm telling you right now,
that's how this man feels. Look at the whole picture.
Don't just look at that. He was not in his
right mind. He was gone. Nobody was home. You have
to understand mental health, real mental health, not people playing
(18:14):
mental health, real mental health. His mind was gone. That's
why I said equate it to sleepwalk in. Do you
whatever you dream about, do you now wake up and say,
you know what, in my dream, I was cheating on
my husband, So on I'm a cheater? Do you do that?
You can't control your dreams. It's a freaking dream. So
(18:36):
look at the whole picture, and then go ahead and
answer the poll. Do you think he should be in
prison or do you think he should be in a
mental institution? Those poles are gonna be on the Patreon
and it's gonna be available for free, so you can
sign up for free on the Patreon patreon dot com
for it Slash Love and Murder. It's also gonna be
available on a Spotify, So if you listen to this
on Spotify, then you can answer the poll question. There
(18:57):
you already know where I sit with it, I don't
think he should be in prison. I think he should
be in a mental institution. And not only does he
need to understand that this is not his fault, he
just needs to be able to take care of his
mental health issues on a whole. And that is that
for this case. That's a horrible, horrible case. I feel
(19:19):
bad for everybody evolved. It's just a case where you
know what I'm saying, it's like there's no winner. There's
no winner. You know, it's just everybody. It's just a
sad case. But shifting gears, I did tell you I
was gonna let you know why the episode came out
late and just why it's been coming out late these
(19:39):
past couple weeks. As you know, I do these episodes
by myself. So if anything goes wrong in my life,
like anything is like my timeline is thrown off at all,
then it just throws everything off. And that's just what's
been happening. Had to take my car to the shop.
I had to do this. I was just away from
my desk for so long. I wasn't coming back to
(20:00):
my desk until like evening time. So you know, imagine
you have a nine to five job. You're supposed to
do all your tasks between nine to five, but you
don't get to your desk till five. Plus you have
to cook dinner plus plus well you know what I'm saying.
So that's just what's been happening. And I'm just like,
I'm trying not to beat myself up because I hate
when I don't get the episode out on time. But
(20:22):
it's just me. It's only me here. I have nobody
helping me, and so I can only do what I
can do. So I'm just like telling myself, as long
as you get the episode out, you get the episode out,
my lambs will understand. Well, I hope you all understand,
and you know, as long as they get their episode,
they'll get their episode. And speaking of that, there are
(20:43):
going to be some changes coming up to Lamb and
once I figure out solidify I have an idea, a
loose idea of the changes, but once I solidify the changes,
I will let you know about what's going on. I
actually want to grant for the podcast and I do
have a set of podcasts. Coach is helping me with
Love and Murder to make it the best that it
(21:04):
can be. The reason I won the grant is because
I pitched my podcast and I told them what makes
this true crime podcast different from others, and they completely
agree with how I'm putting out my episodes, the messages
that I'm portraying, and everything like that. They listen to
the episodes, they loved it. They loved my retaell and
(21:24):
I don't want to say they loved the cases obviously,
but they understood like the messages I was putting out,
and they really want this podcast to be successful to
continue with the messages that it's putting out. So with
that being said, there's a lot of stuff happening in
the background, and so there's gonna be a couple changes
to the podcast. And when I solidify those changes, I
(21:44):
will let y'all know it's not gonna be anything bad.
So don't be like, oh my god, she's leaving us. No,
I'm not. But I just want to give your heads
up that there are gonna be some changes, good changes
in the near future, and I can't wait to tell
you all about it. So don't forget to go ahead
and answer the pole question, or you could just leave
(22:04):
your comments below. The pole question is, do you think
you should be in prison or a mental institution, and
next week I'll be doing that other case. You could
just see the clear differences because the absolute bullshit in
the sentence in I just I don't agree with it.
But anyways, that's all I have for you today. I
would have read comments, but the episode's coming out late,
(22:27):
so I still need to edit it and everything and
try and get it out before midnight.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
So AI Jane here because Kai forgot to remind you
that April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. If you
suspect child abuse, call the child Help National child Abuse
Hotline at one eight hundred four a child or one
eight hundred four to two two four four five three,
or go to childhelp dot Org. All calls are toll
free and confidential. The hotline is available twenty four to
(22:54):
seven in more than one hundred and seventy languages. Be vigilant,
be diligent, and don't let fear get in the way
of helping our children.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
That's all I have for you today, and I will
see you in the next episode. Bye.
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