By Cathy Logg
Herald Writer
EVERETT — Improvements in DNA technology enabled authorities to arrest an Everett man Wednesday night for the slaying of a woman in California 22 years ago.
Craig Nicholas Clark, 40, was arrested without incident at his apartment in the 1300 block of 100th Place SE. He agreed to waive extradition and return to California in a hearing Thursday before Judge Joseph Thibodeau in Snohomish County Superior Court. He remains in custody without bail.
"We got him!" Ronald Zonen, senior deputy district attorney for Santa Barbara County, said with a smile as he sat in the courtroom and watched Clark on a video monitor.
Clark, his long hair pulled back in a ponytail, appeared relaxed and politely answered Thibodeau’s questions.
"We weren’t certain how hard it was going to be to find him," Zonen said. "It was only 12 hours from the time we arrived until he was in custody."
Under the murder charge filed Tuesday, Clark faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life, although prosecutors have yet to decide whether to pursue special circumstances, such as a murder committed during a rape, that would enable them to seek the death sentence, Zonen said.
Beverly West, 41, was found dead in her apartment in Santa Barbara on Oct. 16, 1979. She was found nude and lying on her back, he said. She had been beaten and evidence suggested she had been raped, he said.
Semen recovered from her body was the key to Clark’s arrest, Zonen said.
Clark lived in an apartment building next to West’s in 1979. He didn’t become a suspect until 1990, when a relative told police that Clark had made statements indicating he was involved in West’s death. Under a court order, investigators took blood, hair and saliva samples from Clark, but he refused to talk to them and asked for an attorney, Zonen said.
West’s sister, who found her body, was pleased with news of Clark’s arrest and that the charge had been filed, Zonen said. Every year on the anniversary of West’s death, her sister has put a notice in the paper in her memory and in an effort to keep the case alive and bring about an arrest.
Clark has a lengthy history of domestic violence assaults, harassment and violation of a protection order in Snohomish County. He lived with a woman 15 years his senior for at least eight years, who repeatedly charged him with assault and sought protection orders against him. In 1998, a judge ordered him to have no contact with the woman for five years.
You can call Herald Writer Cathy Logg at 425-339-3437
or send e-mail to logg@heraldnet.com.
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