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The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday unanimously upheld the murder conviction and 43-year sentence of a Hampden man who shot his sister-in-law 10 times on July 11, 2018, in the bedroom of her apartment.
Philip Clark, now 57, confessed to police that he pulled the trigger after Renee Henneberry Clark, 49, pushed “every frigging button she could” until he snapped and shot her.
Her body was found two days later. Clark lived in an adjoining apartment at 557 Kennebec Road in Hampden.
Justices, who heard oral arguments remotely in the case last month, rejected Clark’s argument that Superior Court Justice William Stokes should have recused himself from presiding at the trial because he had met a key witness, the Rev. Anthony Cipolle. The Catholic priest beat up Clark just hours before the murder. Clark also argued that Stokes’ former job as the top homicide prosecutor in the Maine Attorney General’s office disqualified him.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland fired Cipolle last year, saying he had abused his position as a member of the clergy. In sentencing Clark in 2019, Stokes said the former priest had “inflamed” the situation that led to Henneberry Clark’s death.
Maine Supreme Judicial Court Justice Joseph Jabar said in the court’s 22-page opinion that Stokes was not required to turn the trial over to a different judge.
“The fact that the presiding judge had met the witness years before on a few Sundays during one summer was insufficient to create even an appearance of bias,” Jabar said. “Additionally, the trial judge had presided over several homicide trials involving the Attorney General’s office prior to this case and has not worked in the Attorney General’s office for over five years.”
Maine’s high court also rejected Clark’s contention that his attorneys, David Bate of Bangor and Logan Perkins of Belfast, should have been able to argue to jurors that Clark was guilty of manslaughter, not murder, because he was provoked into shooting the victim. Justices also agreed that there were no grounds to suppress Clark’s confession.
The maximum sentence for manslaughter in Maine is 30 years in prison while the sentence for murder is 25 years to life.
Assistant Attorney General Donald Macomber argued in his brief that the judge properly followed Maine law and trial procedures.
“We are pleased with the court’s swift decision in this case,” he said Tuesday. “We hope it brings some measure of comfort and closure to Renee Henneberry Clark’s family.”
Lawyers for Clark did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Clark is incarcerated at the Maine State Prison in Warren. His earliest possible release date is Aug. 24, 2055, when he would be 92, according to the Maine Department of Corrections.