NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – A New Mexico man convicted of killing three people will spend the next seven decades behind bars. On Thursday, Thomas Clark Jr. got emotional in court, saying he’s ready to serve his sentence.
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“Now that I’ve taken a life, I don’t know what to do in life. I don’t, if I could take the death penalty, I probably would. But it’s not going to ease anybody’s pain. It’s not going to ease their pain. There’s no amount of prison time that’s going to be equal to what they want justice for that I did. And I know that. I will never take that away from them. So whatever you give me, I accept. I will stand up like a man and accept that,” said Clark Jr.
In August 2023, Clark Jr. shot and killed Jonathon McGaughy, Genea Oliver, and Randy Lovett at an apartment complex near Zuni Road and Wyoming Boulevard. Prosecutors said Clark was paranoid and shot them out of fear. But his defense claimed that it was self-defense because he thought the victims were planning to kill him. Earlier this year, a jury found Clark Jr. guilty of the murders.
In court, Genea Oliver’s mother-in-law spoke about how her death is still impacting her entire family. “God gives life, but we have not the right to take anybody else’s life. But his decision was made and I wish he would have made a better decision. So as he lives his life out in prison, we live our life out without having Genea, without Genea having her girls, and talking to ’em, and doing Mother’s Day and Christmas, that’s coming around. They have no interest whatsoever…