State to seek death penalty against former Austin officer

The state will seek the death penalty for former Austin police officer VonTrey Clark, who is charged with capital murder in connection with the 2015 shooting death of crime victims counselor Samantha Dean, court documents show.

Clark’s defense attorneys on Tuesday filed a motion for continuance, asking the state court in Bastrop County to delay the trial at least 11 months due to the extensive amount of discovery in the case and because the state would be seeking the death penalty.

On Wednesd a y , after the American-Statesman viewed the motion, it was sealed by Bast r op County state District Judge Carson Campbell. He agreed in court to grant the continuance, pushing Clark’s trial back another year.

Clark was scheduled to go to trial March 19. He will now be tried beginning Feb. 5, 2019, Campbell said.

Prosecutors objected to the request, urging Campbell to begin the trial as soon as possible.

“We do understand that there is a voluminous amount of discovery in this case,” Assistant Attorney General Jane Starnes said. “But we don’t believe that a year or 11 months is necessary . ... We are very aware that the Dean family would like to get this going and get this behind them.”

The Bastrop County district attorney’s office in 2015 requested assistance from the attorney general’s office in prosecuting the case because of the DA’s limited staff.

Dean’s family on Wednesday sat in the back row of the courtroom, as Clark took his seat next to defense attorneys, donning red and white jail stripes. They declined to comment after the hearing about the judge’s decision to delay the trial.

Dean, who worked with the Kyle Police Department, was found dead behind a vacant office building a few miles west of Bastrop on Feb. 4, 2015. An autopsy showed she had been shot three times in the head. She was seven months pregnant at the time of her death.

In September 2015, Clark was charged with capital murder after authorities learned he and Dean had an on-andoff relationship. Witnesses in court documents said Clark, who has a family, offered $5,000 to have Dean killed when she wouldn’t end her pregnancy.

He was apprehended by federal agents in Indonesia and brought back to the United States. Later that year, he pleaded not guilty to Dean’s murder.

The alleged hit man in the crime, Kevin Watson, also was charged with capital murder. His trial date has not been set.

Judge Campbell could not be immediately reached on Wednesday to comment about why he decided to seal the motion for continuance filed by defense attorneys. The state did not object to the request. It is not known when and if those documents will become publicly available.

The judge has issued a gag order in the case, preventing attorneys and witnesses from making any public statements.