Clark pleads not guilty in fatal shooting of man

FAYETTEVILLE — A Fayetteville man pleaded not guilty in Washington County Circuit Court on Friday to second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence related to a fatal shooting last month.

Zachary Ross Clark, 32, of 3130 E. Huntsville Road, was given an Oct. 14 court date before Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay.

Clark is being held at the Washington County Detention Center in lieu of $750,000 bond.

Officers arrived at Clark’s home just after 1 p.m. Feb. 7 in response to a call about a shooting, according to Fayetteville police. Investigators found Thomas McEnaney, 23, of Springdale dead at the property.

Police believe Clark shot McEnaney the day before they responded to the call.

A preliminary report obtained from Fayetteville police said Clark’s wife, Emily Clark, called 911 about 1 p.m. Feb. 7 to report her husband had shot someone the previous afternoon and the body was still on the property.

Emily Clark told dispatchers the unknown male had threatened her husband.

She said the gun was in a shed on the property and she believed the victim was the boyfriend of a female they knew. She also said the vehicle the man had been driving was backed into the woods near their driveway.

She said she called 911 after realizing Zachary Clark had not called police to report and resolve the situation.

When police arrived on scene, Zachary Clark walked out of the house with his hands in the air.

He told police the victim had showed up in the car that was backed into the woods and that he panicked and shot the man. He said he then moved the body to a barn on the property and made his family leave.

“I did the dumbest thing in my life,” Clark told officers, according to the report.

Clark told police he thought the person he shot was someone else when the man showed up on the property.

Clark offered to show police where the body was, but they told him they would check themselves, according to the report. Officers walked to the barn where they found a deceased male lying on a rotten mattress on the floor of the barn.

Police asked Clark if he knew the dead man’s name and he told police he did not know the man.

While being processed at the Police Department, Clark told police the clothes he was wearing at the time were in a shed on the property along with the gun he had used.

Clark