Couple to Stand Trial in Death of Robbery Witness

SANTA ANA â€”  A Los Angeles couple were ordered to trial Tuesday on murder and conspiracy charges for the slaying of a witness to a 1991 Orange County computer store robbery.

William Clinton Clark, 40, and Antoinette Yancey, 26, face a possible death sentence if convicted of killing Ardell Williams last March in Gardena.

In addition, Municipal Judge B. Tam Nomoto in Santa Ana ordered Clark to stand trial for a second killing. He faces murder, robbery and other charges stemming from the slaying of a 49-year-old woman who stumbled upon an armed robbery at a Fountain Valley computer store. Kathy Lee was shot once in the head on Oct. 18, 1991, in the parking lot of CompUSA when she came to pick up her teen-age son, who worked at the store.

The judge’s decision Tuesday came following an unusual five-week preliminary hearing in which witnesses were videotaped to preserve their testimony because one prosecution witness in the case already had been killed.

Prosecutors allege that Williams, 22, of Gardena, was shot to death in a Gardena parking lot because she was a witness to the computer store robbery and slaying. Clark is accused of plotting the killing from his jail cell, while Yancey is accused of carrying out the killing.

Defense lawyers Jack M. Earley and Gary L. Proctor, however, said the couple had nothing to do with either killings and had argued before the judge that the prosecution lacked evidence to prove such charges.

Two other defendants, one of them Clark’s younger brother, have been convicted of first-degree murder for Lee’s death during the computer store robbery. Eric D. Clark and Nokkuwa (Pretty Boy) Ervin, the alleged triggerman, await sentencing in Orange County Superior Court.

Both William Clark and Yancey remain in custody without bail.

The murder charges against the couple carry special circumstances, making them eligible for the death penalty should prosecutors decide to pursue such action.