Widow says plea deals too weak for suspects in husband’s murder
By Craig Smith
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TUCSON, Arizona (KGUN) — It was a murder on Christmas Eve—of a Good Samaritan whose urge to help—-helped his killers with their deadly work. Now Paul Clifford’s widow is afraid two of the people charged in the case will escape with light punishments.
“I want people to know that that Paul was an amazing person. He was a good, kind person, and no way, no shape or form should kindness ever equal a death sentence, and he got the death penalty, and I got life, and all we did was to be kind.”
Christina Crawford wants serious sentences for the people who killed the man she loved so much.
Last Christmas Eve Paul Clifford answered the door and went to help people who said they had car trouble. It was in the remote community of Redington.
He was found dead. His body was burned. His truck had been stolen.
40 year old Jack Upchurch was charged with murder and a long list of related charges.
So was 19 year old Elmer Smith
We are not showing Wendy Scott. She’s a juvenile, 16 years old when she was arrested.
Christina Clifford says prosecutors with County Attorney Laura Conover’s office told her lawyer they are offering plea deals that would lock up Elmer Smith for a year and give Wendy Scott probation. We know of no deal offered to Upchurch.
She says, “The only thing that we were told was that they had spoken with Wendy and that Wendy had given them information regarding the case, they we said, you know, we don’t want this to be the poor Wendy show. This isn’t good. You know, we can’t trust what she says.”
Conover’s office says it is committed to treating victim families with care but can’t comment on case specifics. A statement says in part: “…We remain diligently focused on proceeding with the upcoming first-degree premeditated murder trial in this case against the man who is accused of being the shooter.”
Sara Wright, an attorney for Wendy Scott released a statement saying prosecutors did the right thing based on evidence and law.
Speaking of Clifford’s family, it says, in part, “Nothing about this statement is meant to diminish their pain. At the same time, our justice system demands that legal decisions be based on facts, not public pressure.
Many of those facts have not yet been made public. We expect those details to come to light during the trial of the co-defendant,.”
Christina Clifford says she’d like to see Jack Upchurch get the death penalty but County Attorney Conover has a policy of not asking for death. Barring that, Mrs. Clifford says she hopes for life for Upchurch and Elmer Smith and 25 years for Wendy Scott, as a taste of justice for the three charged with making Paul Clifford’s kindness an invitation to kill.
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