Man To Face Second Trial In Storekeeper's Death

The jury selection process began Monday in for a man accused in the 2007 murder of a package store owner.

Gary Clarke, 25, is charged with murder, murdering during the commission of a felony, and first-degree robbery. He is accused of shooting and killing 46-year-old Jared Silva, owner of Jared’s Packy at 129 Ocean Ave., on the evening of Oct. 12, 2007. This will be the second trial on the charges after the first one .

Police found Silva dead of a gunshot wound to the head, and Clarke was crouching near the body when police arrived. He told police he had seen two men attack Silva and went to get help, but returned after he heard a gunshot. Cosmo Frieson, a 24-year-old co-defendant in the case, told police that he and Clarke tried to rob Silva as he left the store and that Clarke shot Silva during an ensuing scuffle.

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Frieson was charged with murder in the commission of a felony and first-degree robbery. However, the murder charge was dropped after he pleaded to the robbery charge in June of 2009 and agreed to testify against Clarke. Frieson’s sentencing has been deferred until the resolution of Clarke’s case, but he may be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

Clarke went to trial in January of 2011, with much of the state’s evidence relying on witness testimony. Clarke’s attorney posited that there were discrepancies between witness statements to police and their testimony during the trial, and said Frieson or other witnesses could also have been the shooter.

The trial resulted in a hung jury, with a single holdout among the 12 jurors preventing an acquittal on the murder charge. The jury was 9-3 in favor of finding Clarke guilty of the robbery and murder during the commission of a felony charges.

Clarke is also charged with first-degree sexual restraint, first-degree unlawful restraint, and third-degree assault in an unrelated case. Clarke is accused of assaulting and raping a 42-year-old woman in June of 2007, and he was charged him in the crime in April of 2010 after the woman identified Clarke in a photo lineup and investigators determined that his DNA matched evidence taken after the crime. This case has not been resolved and will not be tried as part of the murder trial.

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