Man fights extradition for 1967 killing

A 68-year-old man who was arrested seven months ago in Georgetown continues to fight extradition to Arkansas where he is accused of murdering a man nearly a half-century ago.

James Leon Clay's latest attempt was to file more legal briefs with the Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday as he tries to overturn a lower court's decision to send him to Arkansas where he is wanted for the Aug. 27, 1967, killing of James Ricks. The warrant that was used in Clay's arrest was ambiguous about the charges he was facing, wasn't properly notarized, and wasn't used in the time-frame set by law – so the lower court should have allowed him to go free, Clay's attorney, Robert H. Robinson Jr., argues.

Robinson could not be immediately reached for comment Monday, but Arkansas authorities called the moves a "stall tactic."

"I've got a family in Little Rock that's been waiting since 1967 for some closure in the murder of their loved one," Jackson County, Arkansas, Sheriff David Lucas said. "Basically, in my opinion, this is just victimizing them more."

Clay and his older brother, Leon Junior Clay, who is now dead, shot Ricks to death after stealing his car while fleeing a Little Rock pawn shop they had robbed of guns and other items, according to the Arkansas arrest warrant. In June 1967, two weeks after Ricks and his 1964 Oldsmobile were reported missing, the Clay brothers were in Ricks' car, each with a stolen pistol, when they were caught by police in Ellicott City, Maryland, authorities said.

The two were convicted in federal court with transporting in interstate commerce for having the stolen car and firearms, but never were charged with Ricks' murder. The killing, which occurred about 90 miles northeast of the Arkansas capital of Little Rock, remained a cold case until sometime in 2012, when James Clay was serving a three-year sentence at the Sussex prison for attempted bank robbery the previous year.

During his prison stay, Clay told his cellmate he got away with Ricks' murder, according to the Arkansas arrest warrant, which gave the following account:

The Clay brothers had robbed a pawn shop of guns, jewelry and handcuffs, but their car broke down and they began walking down railroad tracks, where they found Ricks sleeping in his car. James Clay knocked on the window and woke Ricks, then shot him through the glass in the side of his face.

Ricks survived the bullet wound, so they pulled him from the car, handcuffed him and put him in the trunk. They drove around all night and ended up in Newport, Arkansas. They took Ricks out of the trunk and handcuffed him to a tree, but the elder Clay said they "would get just as much time for shooting him as they would if they shot and killed him."

The brothers removed the handcuffs and told Ricks they "would have someone come and get him." Instead, Clay told his cellmate he "walked behind James Ricks and shot him in the back of the head."

In March of this year, Georgetown officer Derrick Calloway went to Clay's house in the first block of Waples Drive in Georgetown. Calloway had received a request from the Jackson County Sheriff's office to arrest Clay on murder charges, according to court documents obtained by The News Journal.

"Clay openly admitted to me about committing this homicide when he was 20 years old in Arkansas," Calloway said in the court documents. Clay was taken to the Georgetown Police Department, where after he was read his Miranda Rights, but with no attorney, admitted again to the crime before "quickly deciding that he didn't want to talk anymore without an attorney."

No date is available on when the Delaware Supreme Court will make its decision.

Reporter James Fisher contributed to this story.

Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3.