Nine years after Lancaster murder, accused man who fled SC faces justice

Nine years after Lemario Ford of Lancaster was beaten and shot to death, the case against five men involved in his death is over.

Montrez Michael Clark, 28, was sentenced to 15 years in prison Tuesday, after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter in Ford’s 2009 death, court officials said.

Clark had been charged with murder before the plea deal.

Clark pleaded guilty under what is called an Alford plea, where a defendant accepts the punishment of a guilty plea while not having to admit guilt. A defendant in an Alford plea accepts in court that there is a likelihood he would be convicted if the case went to trial, said 6th Circuit Deputy Solicitor Lisa Collins.

An Alford plea is treated like any other guilty plea for sentencing, Collins said.

Clark was out on bond with a trial for murder pending in October 2016 when he fled South Carolina. He missed court, and was arrested in June 2018 in Baltimore. He was extradited back to Lancaster.

Days before the scheduled October 2016 trial, co-defendant Yusuf Abdus-Salaam, 32, of Lancaster, also was out on bond after being charged with murder in the Ford homicide case. Abdus-Salaam was gunned down outside a home in Lancaster days before the court date, police said.

No one has been charged in the killing of Abdus-Salaam. That case remains an open and is an active investigation, said Lancaster Police Department Chief Scott Grant.

Clark was out on $30,000 bond from 2012 to 2016, records show. Clark was arrested six times during those four years but his bond in the murder case was never revoked before he skipped town, records show.

In 2007, while a teen, Clark had two convictions: one for drugs and another for assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, State Law Enforcement Division and court records show. For the assault, Clark was sentenced to a year in prison and three years’ probation.

Abdus-Salaam had a criminal record of drug, violence and other convictions dating back to 2002, records show. He was out on bond for the Ford homicide case and out on bond on another charge of attempted murder and armed robbery for a different crime when he was killed, records show.

Three others involved in the Ford’s 2009 beating pleaded guilty in 2016, court records show. Dequavis Jamark Blair and Keith Jacova Coleman were each sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, records show. Derrick Lamont Wade was sentenced to 10 years in the case after pleading guilty to lynching, records state.

This story was originally published October 30, 2018 at 3:13 PM.