Clarence Elkins

Clarence Arnold Elkins Sr. (born January 19, 1963) is an American man who was wrongfully convicted of the 1998 rape and murder of his mother-in-law, Judith Johnson, and the rape and assault of his wife's niece, Brooke Sutton. He was convicted solely on the basis of the testimony of six-year-old Brooke, who testified that Elkins was the perpetrator.

Brooke later voiced doubts about her identification, claiming that in her initial statement when she said "He looked like uncle Clarence", she simply meant that he reminded her of Elkins as opposed to being a positive identification and that she only identified him in her testimony at the urging of Summit County Prosecutor Maureen O'Connor (Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court until 2022) and the main courtroom prosecutor, Michael Carroll. Brooke recanted her statement and Elkins appealed on that basis, but his appeal was denied.

The family gathered funding to test DNA found at the scene and he was excluded. Once again, his appeal was denied. The judge ruled that because the jury convicted Elkins without the DNA results, it was likely that he would have been convicted even if the DNA did not match.

Elkins' wife, Melinda, conducted her own investigation. She eventually identified Johnson's next door neighbor, Earl Mann, a convicted sex offender, as a likely suspect. Elkins collected a cigarette end from Mann, who was serving time at the same prison, and provided it to his defense attorney for testing.

Mann's DNA from the cigarette end was found to be a match to the DNA found at the crime scene. Elkins was exonerated after serving 6.5 years in prison.

Elkins now works as an advocate to halt wrongful convictions and was instrumental in getting Ohio to pass Senate Bill 77, also known as Ohio's Innocence Protection Act. This bill contains provisions requiring the police to follow best practices for eyewitness identifications, provides incentives for the videotaping of interrogations, and requires that DNA be preserved in homicide and sexual assault cases.

A 2009 documentary was made about the case titled Conviction: The True Story of Clarence Elkins. He was also featured on Crime Watch Daily with Chris Hansen in 2017. Also in 2017, Fox 8 Cleveland covered Elkins' trip to Chicago, where a procedure called "stellate ganglion block" was performed on both him and his wife Molly, by Dr. Eugene Lipov. This procedure was done in order to reduce symptoms of PTSD.

The attack In the early morning hours of June 7, 1998, Clarence Elkins' mother-in-law, 58-year-old Judy Johnson, and his wife's six-year-old niece, Brooke Sutton, were brutally attacked by an intruder in Johnson's home in Barberton, Ohio.

Johnson had been asleep on her living room couch when she was attacked. She was raped, stabbed, and beaten so severely that her nose, jaw, collarbone and skull were all fractured in the assault. Her cause of death was determined to be strangulation.

Brooke, who was sleeping in her grandmother's bed, was awakened by the noise. She recalls: "I got out of bed and I went to the kitchen and I looked and I seen that there was a guy in the kitchen, but it scared me, so I ran back to the bedroom." She hid under the covers pretending to be asleep.

The intruder entered the bedroom and struck Brooke in the face, knocking her unconscious. She was also beaten, raped, strangled, and suffered a small cut to her throat, but survived without any memory of the attack. She regained consciousness several hours around nowrap|7:00 a.m.

Investigation

When the police questioned Brooke, she said that the killer "looked like Uncle Mrs. Johnson's 35-year-old son-in-law, Clarence Elkins. The police interpreted this to mean Elkins himself was the attacker.

Brasiel also reported to Brooke's mother that Brooke had identified Elkins as the attacker. She later described the situation on Larry King: "I woke up and I found my grandma dead, I went to a next door neighbor's house and I told her that it looked like my uncle Clarence and it sounded like him. So, she took me home and she told my mom [exactly] what I told and then everyone just started freaking out. And then my mom and dad called the police and my mom and dad told the police that it was my Uncle Clarence who did it."

When asked how the identification could go so wrong, she replied, "Well, I told people that it looked like him and they just went like it was him. They didn't even listen to what I was saying."

Trial

At trial, the prosecution theorized that Elkins killed his mother-in-law due to frustration because she was meddling in his then-contentious marriage to her daughter, Melinda. The case against Elkins was largely based on the testimony of the 6-year-old eyewitness; however, investigators did not find signs of forced entry, or fingerprints or DNA linking Elkins to the scene.

Hairs recovered from Johnson's body were excluded as having come from either Elkins or Johnson. He insisted he was drinking with friends until about 2:40 a.m. Sunday morning, a timeline that Melinda corroborated. She testified that she saw Clarence return home, and knew he remained there, as she was awake most of the night caring for a sick child.

The attack occurred sometime between 2:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m.; Johnson's residence is more than an hour away by car. It was the first murder trial over which Judge Adams had presided.

Further investigation

After the conviction, Elkins and his wife Melinda began their own investigation and hired a private investigator, Martin Yant, who had previously assisted with the exonerations of numerous wrongfully convicted defendants.

It had been overlooked that Mann's wife Tonia left Brooke, a severely beaten and bloody 6-year-old in immediate need of medical care, on the porch for more than 30 minutes instead of telephoning 911 immediately. was born in Melbourne, Florida, before relocating to Ohio. He had an extensive criminal record for crimes ranging from a racially motivated assault on another man to robberies. During 2002, Mann was convicted of raping three girls, his daughters, all under the age of 10. He had three children with Tonia Brasiel, who lived next door to Judith Johnson. Brooke frequently played with their daughters.

In 2005, after Mann was identified as a suspect, Barberton police officer Gerard Antenucci brought to the attention of the prosecution the existence of a memorandum from 1999, four months before Elkins' trial. Antenucci arrested Mann for an unrelated robbery. During the process of his arrest, a drunk and belligerent Mann asked why he hadn't been arrested for the robbery and murder of Judy Johnson. Per policy, the arresting officer sent a memo to the detectives working the Johnson murder. This statement was never disclosed to the defense.

After Mann was identified, Brasiel admitted during questioning that Mann returned home the early morning hours after the murder with deep scratches on his back. When she questioned him, he claimed he had been with a "wild woman". According to Brasiel, when Brooke knocked on the door following the attack, he became angry and insisted that Brasiel not let her in nor call police. Authorities suspected that Mann killed Johnson and attempted to kill Brooke due to a botched robbery.

Clarence Elkins settled with the state of Ohio for US$1.075 million. He later filed a civil suit against the Barberton police for failing to disclose the incriminating statement by Earl Mann during his 1999 arrest.

Barberton police sought to have the case dismissed, but failed. The judge ruled that had Mann's statement to Officer Gerard Antenucci been disclosed to the defense, they most likely would have noticed the proximity of Mann, a convicted felon, to the Johnson residence, as well as the behavior of Tonia Brasiel on the morning after the murder.

Mann's DNA would almost certainly have been tested, and Elkins would almost certainly not have been convicted.

Mann's conviction In 2008, ten years after the crimes were committed, in a plea agreement to avoid the death penalty, Mann pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated rape and aggravated murder for the death of Johnson, as well as aggravated rape of Brooke (he was not charged with robbery as the statue of limitation had expired). He was sentenced to a minimum of 55 years in prison, meaning he will not be eligible for parole until age 90 or 91.

Aftermath Reform efforts Melinda Elkins Dawson was instrumental in getting Ohio to pass Senate Bill 262, also known as Post Conviction DNA Law. This bill contains provisions for DNA testing post-conviction, using outcome determinative guidelines. Melinda also serves as chair of the board of directors for "Ohioans to Stop Executions". As a public speaker and victim advocate, she continues to fight for justice and to increase awareness of wrongful convictions.

Clarence Elkins was instrumental in getting Ohio to pass Senate Bill 77, also known as Ohio's Innocence Protection Act.

Family strain Since the night of the crime, Judy's family has been divided due to the case, with some members certain of his guilt and others of his innocence. Three years after the trial, the family partly reconciled, but was still divided on Clarence's innocence. which was finalized in 2007. Despite this, he and Melinda remain friends to this day.

In an interview with Forensic Files, Melinda said that she and Clarence never blamed her niece Brooke for his imprisonment, but admitted that she hadn't spoken to her or her mother since the trial.

Brooke Sutton has not spoken to Melinda, Clarence or their children since Clarence's trial. In an interview with Forensic Files, she expressed remorse for misidentifying her uncle and for putting him and Melinda in the situation they had. She said that her and her parents' relationship with her aunt and ex-uncle are irreparable, despite Clarence's innocence and Mann's conviction.

In popular culture

In 2009, a television documentary about the Elkins case was released, named Conviction: The True Story of Clarence Elkins.

Clarence Elkins case was covered in the "All Butt Certain" episode of Forensic Files.