Lieutenant Robert Young
Appearances
The Deck
Sharon Jones (10 of Spades, Florida)
And when he's done going to the bathroom, he gets back in the car. And I believe initially he didn't go to the police. I believe he went home first and told someone. And then they went to the lobby of the police department and told him, hey, there may be a body located in the alleyway just north of Central Avenue on 12th Street.
The Deck
Sharon Jones (10 of Spades, Florida)
She's bound behind her back with a red dress that was torn apart and it was used to bind her as well as wrapped around her neck to possibly strangle her. You can see the ligature around her neck and her arms that are bound. Looked like she had bindings on her ankles, but over the course of days, they somehow came apart or they were never put on that tightly.
The Deck
Sharon Jones (10 of Spades, Florida)
And then they also went to check the rooftops, and they found she had a pair of beige slides, slippers, and they were actually found on the roof of this building. You just check to see if any evidence was thrown. Maybe a knife was, maybe a weapon was thrown over there. So you got to do your due diligence and you check the whole entire area.
The Deck
Sharon Jones (10 of Spades, Florida)
Detectives go down to the area where all the drug dealers and drug users hang out or reside. So they get some information that there was a party. And during this party, these were the five or six individuals that were present. Sharon was one of them. Girls were expected to exchange sexual favors for crack cocaine, which was very popular at the time.
The Deck
Sharon Jones (10 of Spades, Florida)
And two of the people that were present were Arthur Neesmith and Robert Ruscha. And we had at least two people, females that were present there, who stated that Sharon went into a room with those two subjects. You had people there who were in this apartment who all had criminal histories. So everyone pretty much at the party has given a statement with the exception of those two guys.
The Deck
Sharon Jones (10 of Spades, Florida)
And even to this day, you know, when we tried to interview them, Rache just gets angry and shouts, he had nothing to do with it. And Neesmith says, I have an attorney, I'm not making any statements.
The Deck
Sharon Jones (10 of Spades, Florida)
They asked him to drive his vehicle to the back of 9B, and that's where they assumed Sharon was placed through the window into the backseat of the car, and that was the last time that she was seen by any of the people present there at the party.
The Deck
Sharon Jones (10 of Spades, Florida)
They would have looked for hairs, any type of blood, any type of evidence indicates a violent act occurred in the rear of that vehicle. Because at the time, nobody was scouring for DNA. You would just look for the presence of blood, hairs, things of that nature, and there was nothing recovered of evidentiary value from that vehicle.
The Deck
Sharon Jones (10 of Spades, Florida)
He was very sick. I don't know whether it was through genetics or drug abuse. Both. Don't know. But he lived there. A lot of people lived there. Robert Ruscha was also a tenant there. John is hospitalized shortly afterwards. And he's on his deathbed, for lack of a better term. And he wants to provide one of our detectives a complete deathbed confession about what took place there.
The Deck
Sharon Jones (10 of Spades, Florida)
And by the time our detective got to the hospital, he had passed.
The Deck
Sharon Jones (10 of Spades, Florida)
It was a poorly lit industrial area. Especially at night, you know, December, around 5.30, 6 o'clock, it's getting dark. There's junk back there. People throw their garbage. There's some vegetation back there. It's in between two industrial buildings. Nobody's looking back there for bodies. But, you know, he notices something a little to his right. And he realizes this is a decomposing body.
The Deck
Sharon Jones (10 of Spades, Florida)
Detective Vargas was contacted at his residence to respond to the Naples Community Hospital concerning Robert Ruscha. He requested to speak with the detective to make statements about the murder. He said, I need to speak with Victor. Tell him I can solve the murder case for him. Well, so the detective gets dressed and drives down there.
The Deck
Sharon Jones (10 of Spades, Florida)
And he goes, I was advised that Ruscha had been smoking crack cocaine. And when I entered the emergency room, he was in tears, relaying that he needed to talk with me.
The Deck
Sharon Jones (10 of Spades, Florida)
She goes, he'll talk to me. He'll talk to me about anything. So she meets with the vice narcotics guys. They get her out of jail, and they wire her up, getting a drug deal going down. And she's going to go there, and she no-shows. So they then, like, hey, you're out. We got you out of jail right now, so we're responsible for you. So then, like, a couple weeks go by.
The Deck
Sharon Jones (10 of Spades, Florida)
She finally said, okay, okay, we can do the deal. I told him what I need. He's going to go get the drugs, and then he's going to go back to his apartment. So they got her all wired up, and our detectives at the time, the narcotics guys who were orchestrating this whole thing, they got their cover blown. She goes to the house and is like, okay, yeah, where's the thing?
The Deck
Sharon Jones (10 of Spades, Florida)
And he gives her her $100 back and says, get the f*** out of my apartment.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
He had a girlfriend who lived in Mexico and they tried to talk to her. And then they tried to talk to his former employees. And they said, you're allowed to what they call pouch. And that's transfer things across the border without paying a duty tax on them. He would always come to his co-workers and go, hey, take this across the border for me.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
So she had keys to the condo, and when she went, there were some pamphlets that had been shoved in the door, in the wedge of the door, and she made her way in. And when she went in, she saw the living room looked like it was in disarray, and then she saw her daughter, obviously deceased with multiple stab wounds, blood everywhere, and
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
And people felt like they were being imposed upon by him, and it was getting to the point where they felt it was uncomfortable, you know. So people weren't really speaking highly of him to the detectives.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
Now, I feel that if I don't die a natural death, it's possible Jim would have found a convoluted solution to his own dilemma. How to control all assets by removing Carol. A final solution not unlike he judged his father to have dealt with his own mother. A pillow over her face. Supposedly, there were allegations that his father put a pillow over his wife's face.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
Carol spoke, you know, the whole divorce caused her a lot of stress emotionally, financially as well. James, you know, near the end of their marriage, in addition to seeing other women, she had asked him to leave before. There was no indication he was physically abusive. There was indication he was verbally abusive. There was indications he may have done inappropriate things with his daughter.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
That really was brought to Carol's attention, and I think that was the final straw. She had dealt with verbal abuse for a while. Jim was very domineering, and I think once this issue between the daughter and her husband surfaced, I think that caused her to say, this is it. She went to stay in the condo in Naples, Florida and initiated divorce proceedings.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
And obviously those dragged on for over three years.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
mortally wounded, laying on the floor, partially in the kitchen part in the living room. She's laying, a portion of her was just outside of the kitchen area. There were three knives missing from the butcher block. Two of those knives were laying on the kitchen counter. The third knife, the biggest one, was laying across her chest and neck. And that was ultimately proved to be the murder weapon.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
The night of the homicide, Carlos doesn't get to work till midnight. Virginia said she decided to go out shopping at 11 p.m. And Virginia says she goes to the ATM, takes some cash out, and says she wanted to go get some groceries and maybe cook something for Carlos before he got to work.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
Like, how is there a long line at 11.30? Then they said the computer was down. It would only take five minutes. I was looking at the clock and I was going to be late. So she paid cash and got home and it was too late to make him a meal because he has to leave at 11.45 to get to work at midnight. So that never really panned out and the detectives at the time found her actions suspicious.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
They knew the divorce settlement maybe was coming up because they didn't have that much money. Maybe she could take her mom's place and be the benefactor of all this divorce settlement and gain that money. So there was that angle that was looked at. They're both working blue-collar jobs trying to make ends meet. So yeah, the money that they could have gained, that's always a motive.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
So there was also a pillow that was found and detectives theorized that that may have been used to muffle her from screaming in agony from all the stab wounds, which I think we believe were about between 13 to 15 stab wounds. When she was taken to the medical examiner's office, they were right in that range. Obviously, there was a significant one to her neck.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
She had like a large t-shirt on and she had underwear underneath it. And the underwear were intact. Sexual assault kit was taken and there was no indication that this was a sexually related attack. Her living room table was turned over. So it appeared maybe she was running around the table and the assailant just flipped the table over and got to her. Her shirt pocket was torn off.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
Sergeant Johnson, he's this polygraph guy, he's doing the pre-interview, he asked Carlos if he drove Carol's vehicle from the condo right after she was murdered. His initial response was, yes.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
So then Sergeant Johnson gives him the polygraph. He stated Carlos showed deception and was not being truthful. So they do a post-interview, and Carlos could not explain why he was not telling the truth. He agreed to return at 9 a.m. the following day to take another polygraph. Carlos showed up the next day to take the polygraph again. He showed he was being deceptive and not telling the truth.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
Carlos did not confess. Carlos stated the polygraph was not working right, and detectives at the scene screwed it up. Carlos voluntarily provided an oral swab for DNA, and then he was permitted to leave. So Carlos tells Virginia what happened during the interview.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
Like it's almost maybe someone grabbed it and yanked it off.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
The hair did not contain roots. One hair looked like a brown hair, like a body hair. The other hair looked like a grayish hair. And so I presented this to DNA Labs International, and they said, save that for your Hail Mary, because... Technology is not really there yet as far as just doing the stock without a route, but hold on to it.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
So they looked at it and they said, let's look at some other items.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
Carol is very security conscious, according to people who were interviewed who knew her. So they found that odd that her sliding glass door was open. So that leads you to speculate. Did she have the sliding glass door open in the evening because it was nice out and then the assailant could have just leapt into the balcony and made their way in through there?
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
or whether she knew someone and she opened the door for them willingly and let them in. There was a ladder left nearby because her building was being painted, and all the painters who were working on the building were interviewed as part of the investigation. So there was a ladder that was actually taken as evidence by the detectives back then.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
There's about eight to ten buildings off the top of my head, and it's kind of in a horseshoe shape. It's an odd setup. If you drive in, it's almost like they wedged this condo in there in limited space and had to figure out how to get as many units as possible in this small area. If you drive in, you kind of have to go in reverse to get out of the condominium complex.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
There was a couple who went out to dinner. They said around 7.30 at night. And they're coming into the condominium parking lot, which is more of an alleyway. And they're driving and there's a male in front of them who is tall, dark hair, and did not look back. So you've got the car and you've got this guy just walking, doesn't turn around. They said, that's weird.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
And they kept following him, like, what is this guy doing in our driveway? It looked like he clearly didn't belong there. So then he turns, and then they turn, but you can't go any further over here. That's why people have to kind of back out. And then he takes off running. Now, I will say a lot of people go behind these condos to fish. So we have to chase people out of there all the time.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
People just assume they can walk on people's property and just sit back there and go fishing and hang out and smoke pot and do whatever the hell they do back there. But this guy runs away. So what happens later is there's a prowler. At about 10, 10.30 at night, there's a couple who see, when they're looking out the window, someone who resembles that same person in the area.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
And he said that at 4.15 or 4.30 in the morning, he was unable to sleep and he heard a strange noise. He said it sounded like two pieces of metal striking against one another. Could have been a ladder, right?
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
We later found out at about 7.15 in the morning, the couple down below were getting ready to start their day, having breakfast, getting their blinds opened up. And because of how narrow this driveway is in this condo unit, they heard Carol's car start up. And they heard the engine revving. And the person in there...
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
because you have to, the way it's situated, he was going in reverse, backing out of the condominium driveway. And from the best of their recollection, they estimated it could have been a person with dark hair, possibly Hispanic, backing out of the driveway.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
His parents lived across the road in another condo called Lausanne. And he had come over near the pool area and made some really bizarre comments to some of the ladies. And then detectives interviewed people at Lausanne and they said, he's a little off.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
Off the top of my head, I don't remember exactly, so I'll paraphrase, but she said, if it's Jim, he can get people from anywhere or he can be anywhere. But he was immediately mentioned in items that detectives had recovered at the time. And Wilma had mentioned during interviews with them that she said, if anything did happen to me, that it was Jim Clement who was responsible.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
The car is located at the Fort Myers Airport. It's a rest area. One of the attendants who checked in the rest area saw that the car had been here a while. It's got no tag on it. Looked inside. Doors were locked. Nothing appeared out of place. The back seats, though, were pulled out off their slide. But I don't know if Carol did that. Don't know if the suspect did that.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
But the car was left there and the plates were removed. The theory was, okay, someone took it there, dropped it off, because the airport is literally less than a mile away at the time.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
Carol was going to receive the condo and... a certain amount of money for the next, I believe it was 42 months. She was going to receive some form of alimony and then X amount of dollars, etc. And there was some inheritance money. So here we are, maybe a week away from finally putting an end to this divorce and putting everything to bed and they can both go their own ways. And she turns up dead.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
At about 10.45, 10.50, Carol's mom was coming back from church and she had to drop off a dress that she wanted her daughter to bleach or do something with. And she drove to her daughter's condo and she noticed that her daughter's car was not there.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
All detectives' efforts to see if James Clement was in town were not successful. He had an alibi that he was staying with a Nelms family and were renting a room from them, basement room maybe, in Virginia. And Mr. Nelms was too ill to go to a concert on that Saturday night. And so he escorted Mrs. Nelms to a concert in Northern Virginia. And they both were interviewed separately.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
And that was the story detectives received. Detectives checked airline logs into Fort Myers, checked trains, things of that nature. And nothing indicated that James Clement was here in southwest Florida on the night of the homicides.
The Deck
Carole Clement (Ace of Hearts, Florida)
You know, they checked all these logs, but who are you looking for? You know, you weren't looking for Jim Clement anymore. You're looking for no one.