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District attorney decries violent death of teacher, says public acknowledgment of domestic violence must rise
04/10/04
By GARY McELROY
Staff Reporter
District Attorney John Tyson Jr. used autopsy drawings Friday to convince a judge that Richie Allen Clemons -- accused in the brutal beating and stabbing death of the mother of his 5-year-old son -- should remain in jail until trial.
Backed by a large contingent from the family, neighbors and associates of the victim, school teacher Monica Moralis, Tyson told Mobile County District Judge Judson Wells that those affected by the slaying fear Clemons being released.
Wells then set a $1
illion bond for the 35-year-old man accused of killing Moralis during a Wednesday night attack inside and outside her west Mobile home.
According to Tyson, Clemons -- described by the prosecutor as a
&
uot;towering man" at 6 feet 8 inches tal
l -- broke through the door of Moralis' house on Medford Drive East and then broke into her bedroom, where he started beating her as her three children watched.
Tyson said outside court that Clemons then dragged Moralis into the front yard, beat her head into the concrete, "causing multiple concussions," before he started stabbing her.
There were numerous deep defensive wounds on her hands and as many as eight stab wounds to her back, along with other cuts, and her face was one big bruise, Tyson said.
"He finished killing her while neighbors and, I presume, her children, were watching," Tyson said. When police and paramedics arrived on the scene, he said, Clemons was "still on top of her in the front yar
d."
He said he saw Clemons shortly after his arrest. "Evidence of the crime was literally spread all over him, from head to foot," Tyson said.
Tyson said that since
Cle
mons
' arre
st, it had been necessary to sedate him following a series of violent outbursts.
Clemons Mobile attorney, John Thompson, said outside court Friday that he would seek to get a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation of his client, but such an order is usually not handled on the District Court level.
Wells set Clemons' arraignment for April 19.
Tyson said many people who knew Moralis are now afraid.
"This is the kind of rippling damage this particular crime of domestic violence in all its many shades and degrees causes in a community," Tyson said.
Domestic violence was an ongoing and insidious problem with Clemons, Tyson said, and in desperation Moralis had, on her last morning alive, called and talked with the district attorney about what cou
ld be done to prevent Clemons from harming her.
"You talk to someone at 8:30 a.m. and at midnight you get a homicide call, and it's the same woman you were talking to
during
the day,
" Tyson said.
He described the death as "yet another wake-up call for this community to come together and collectively be responsible for
domestic violence crimes and do something to change the culture and not be afraid to discuss it."
Tyson cited a local task force study showing that in 2001 there were more than 16,000 domestic violence calls in Mobile County, resulting in nearly 9,000 police reports and, ultimately, about 4,000 arrests.
He called sexual assault another form of domestic violence and said that 75 percent of all victims of sexual assault know their attackers.
"Police spend as much as 62 percent of their time on domestic violence," Tyson said, although many people never see it.
"Domestic violence is one of those crimes that al
ways goes under-reported and may go on for years without anyone ever knowing," he said. "When it mushrooms to the point of this kind of case, you see multiple gen
erational d
amage."
In Moralis' c
ase, Tyson said, she had sworn out a warrant against Clemons following a harassment episode a few days earlier and also a restraining order, although it was unclear if it had bee
n served.
No matter what she did, it wasn't enough, the district attorney said. "Despite everything that was in place, the system did not save Ms. Moralis."
A wake for Moralis is set for Sunday between 5 and 7 p.m. at Radney Funeral Home on Dauphin Street, where the funeral is scheduled for Monday at 11 a.m.
http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/inde...15886134830.xml
District attorney decries violent death of teacher, says public acknowledgment of domestic violence must rise
04/10/04
By GARY McELROY
Staff Reporter
District Attorney John Tyson Jr. used autopsy drawings Friday to convince a judge that Richie Allen Clemons -- accused in the brutal beating and stabbing death of the mother of his 5-year-old son -- should remain in jail until trial.
Backed by a large contingent from the family, neighbors and associates of the victim, school teacher Monica Moralis, Tyson told Mobile County District Judge Judson Wells that those affected by the slaying fear Clemons being released.
Wells then set a $1
illion bond for the 35-year-old man accused of killing Moralis during a Wednesday night attack inside and outside her west Mobile home.
According to Tyson, Clemons -- described by the prosecutor as a
&
uot;towering man" at 6 feet 8 inches tal
l -- broke through the door of Moralis' house on Medford Drive East and then broke into her bedroom, where he started beating her as her three children watched.
Tyson said outside court that Clemons then dragged Moralis into the front yard, beat her head into the concrete, "causing multiple concussions," before he started stabbing her.
There were numerous deep defensive wounds on her hands and as many as eight stab wounds to her back, along with other cuts, and her face was one big bruise, Tyson said.
"He finished killing her while neighbors and, I presume, her children, were watching," Tyson said. When police and paramedics arrived on the scene, he said, Clemons was "still on top of her in the front yar
d."
He said he saw Clemons shortly after his arrest. "Evidence of the crime was literally spread all over him, from head to foot," Tyson said.
Tyson said that since
Cle
mons
' arre
st, it had been necessary to sedate him following a series of violent outbursts.
Clemons Mobile attorney, John Thompson, said outside court Friday that he would seek to get a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation of his client, but such an order is usually not handled on the District Court level.
Wells set Clemons' arraignment for April 19.
Tyson said many people who knew Moralis are now afraid.
"This is the kind of rippling damage this particular crime of domestic violence in all its many shades and degrees causes in a community," Tyson said.
Domestic violence was an ongoing and insidious problem with Clemons, Tyson said, and in desperation Moralis had, on her last morning alive, called and talked with the district attorney about what cou
ld be done to prevent Clemons from harming her.
"You talk to someone at 8:30 a.m. and at midnight you get a homicide call, and it's the same woman you were talking to
during
the day,
" Tyson said.
He described the death as "yet another wake-up call for this community to come together and collectively be responsible for
domestic violence crimes and do something to change the culture and not be afraid to discuss it."
Tyson cited a local task force study showing that in 2001 there were more than 16,000 domestic violence calls in Mobile County, resulting in nearly 9,000 police reports and, ultimately, about 4,000 arrests.
He called sexual assault another form of domestic violence and said that 75 percent of all victims of sexual assault know their attackers.
"Police spend as much as 62 percent of their time on domestic violence," Tyson said, although many people never see it.
"Domestic violence is one of those crimes that al
ways goes under-reported and may go on for years without anyone ever knowing," he said. "When it mushrooms to the point of this kind of case, you see multiple gen
erational d
amage."
In Moralis' c
ase, Tyson said, she had sworn out a warrant against Clemons following a harassment episode a few days earlier and also a restraining order, although it was unclear if it had bee
n served.
No matter what she did, it wasn't enough, the district attorney said. "Despite everything that was in place, the system did not save Ms. Moralis."
A wake for Moralis is set for Sunday between 5 and 7 p.m. at Radney Funeral Home on Dauphin Street, where the funeral is scheduled for Monday at 11 a.m.
http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/inde...15886134830.xml