FRANK MOORE (EXECUTED IN TEXAS ON 21 JANUARY 2009)

Frank Moore

CASE: Frank Moore was sentenced to death for the January 21, 1994 shooting deaths of Samuel Boyd and Patrick Clark. Moore's first death sentence was set aside by an appeals court, and he was again sentenced to death by a second jury. 

Moore shot and killed two individuals after an altercation in the parking lot of the Wheels of Joy Club in San Antonio, Texas, around 2:00 a.m. on January 21, 1994. The persons killed were Samuel Boyd, 23-years old, and Patrick Clark, 15-years old. The first peace officer on the scene found Boyd dead or dying in the passenger seat of an automobile and Clark lying dead next to the driver's door. An investigator found shell casings in a location that suggested that the shots were fired from the left rear of the vehicle. This evidence comported with the deputy medical examiner's testimony that the tracks of the bullet wounds were generally from back to front and left to right. Boyd had been wounded by six bullets and Clark by five. Boyd's blood contained 0.28 grams per deciliter of ethanol alcohol. Clark's blood contained 0.15 grams per deciliter of ethanol, as well as 0.25 milligrams per liter of diazepam and 0.33 milligrams per liter of nordiazepam. In the opinion of the medical expert, the latter two controlled substances are muscle relaxants. Both victims were acutely intoxicated at the times of their deaths. 

The State called Angela Wallace, who lived in Houston and was visiting San Antonio to attend the funeral of her uncle. Prior to the night of the shootings, Wallace did not know anyone involved in the offense. She testified that she and a friend, Lisa, had gone to an icehouse across from the Wheels of Joy Club. Lisa was Boyd's girlfriend. Boyd met Lisa at the icehouse and the two verbally argued. Wallace left her friend and walked to the Wheels of Joy where she spent several hours in the nightclub; Boyd entered the club after Wallace and told her that Lisa had gone home. During the evening, Wallace saw Moore in the club and at one time Moore and Boyd shook hands and the two spoke and laughed. She also saw Clark in the club but did not see him have any contact with the Moore. Wallace testified that she did not see Boyd or Clark acting drunk or argumentative. 

Throughout the evening, Moore came and spoke to Wallace and flirted with her. At one point, Wallace observed two women with Moore look at her strangely and she momentarily left the club to deposit her jewelry in her car. As the club prepared to close, Moore asked Wallace to save him the last dance and to give him her telephone number. Wallace refused to give Moore her number, but he offered to give his to her. As the club was closing, Moore was interrupted by a man who stopped and whispered to him; the two men then left the club. Wallace identified this other man from photographs as Ivory Sheffield. When the club closed, Wallace left and went to the parking lot. She testified that Moore, Boyd, Clark, and another man "had a confrontation . . . an exchange of words and someone pushed somebody. . . . It just broke up. Just everybody started scattering a little bit." 

Wallace saw Clark's car come into the parking lot and stop. She stated that the car did not come close to striking the Moore and it did not back up. While Boyd must have at some point gotten into Clark's car, Wallace did not see him do so. Wallace testified that she saw the Moore walk towards the back of Clark's car. Sheffield got a rifle from the trunk of a Cadillac and tossed it to Moore, who started shooting into Clark's car. Moore handed the gun back to Sheffield and left in a Cadillac. Sheffield said, "Who else wants some of this?" and walked around with the gun. Wallace left the crime scene with an individual named Edmond to notify the family of Boyd and Clark. 

At the second trial, Moore called Robert Mays, Jr. whose testimony contradicted that of Wallace. Mays, a friend of Moore, was at the Wheels of Joy Club on the night of the shootings. Mays did not know the victims but did observe a scuffle outside the club around closing time. Someone yelled they were going to get their stuff (meaning guns) and two or three males ran across the street and got into a white car. Mays also testified they were going to shoot him. They had guns in the car and the white car came across the street into the parking lot at a high rate of speed and tried to run over Mays and others, including Moore, who tried to get out of the way. The car hit some bushes preventing it from striking Mays, and the car backed up and tried to come back at Mays. Mays made a quick getaway and heard shots as he fled the scene. 

QUOTE: “I can sleep a little more better,” Latisha Clark, Patrick Clark’s twin sister, said after watching Moore die. “Knowing that he’s not going to be on the street, I can feel more comfortable,” her sister, Peggy, added. “Justice has been served.”

AUTHOR: Family members of Patrick Clark - he was murdered by Frank Moore on 21 January 1994. He was executed by lethal injection on 21 January 2009 in the State of Texas.