1987 slaying case goes to jurors; man to face execution if convicted

A Palm Beach County jury will begin deliberations today in the cold case murder trial of Rodney Clark. If there is a guilty verdict, prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the slaying of a Lake Worth-area mom 30 years ago.

But Assistant State Attorney Reid Scott, in his final words to the jurors Monday, asked them not to look ahead to a possible punishment round for the 50-year-old Mississippi man accused in the June 20, 1987, strangulation killing of Dana Fader, 27.

“You have to follow the guilt phase at this point,” Scott said. “You simply follow the evidence.”

The prosecutor argued clear DNA and palm print evidence leaves no doubt Clark raped and murdered Fader in the back seat of her car.

Semen stains on Fader’s tan dress and a pillowcase found by her body matched DNA from Clark that investigators obtained in 2012, Scott said, pointing to the statistical improbability it could be from any other person on the planet.

“Rodney Clark has finally been brought to justice,” the prosecutor said, crediting technological advances for bringing about Clark’s arrest nearly five years ago. “He was at the crime scene; he committed this despicable murder.”

Assistant Public Defender Elizabeth Ramsey said there are simply too many loose ends and questions concerning the evidence and the murder investigation to convict her client.

The attorney said the DNA evidence presented to the jury was unreliable, because of cross-contamination over the years.

With the jury out of the courtroom, Ramsey moved for a mistrial over that claim. But Circuit Judge Charles Burton said he had no indication of any tampering and denied the defense’s request.

Ramsey also argued Clark’s palm print, found on the outside window of Fader’s 1980 Ford Fairmount, could have come from him inadvertently touching the car at some other time.

And Ramsey said detectives failed to explore a lead concerning a man on a motorcycle seen on the night of the slaying at Fader’s Willow Lakes Apartments complex, on the corner of Florida Mango Road and 10th Avenue.

“Mr. Clark is innocent,” she told the jury.

The defense also noted that Clark’s DNA was not found on a rope used to stop Fader from breathing; and the medical examiner did not find any proof Fader was sexually assaulted.

Clark, a previously convicted sex offender in a separate case, did not testify in his own defense before both sides rested their cases Monday.

But when he was visited by detectives in Jackson, Miss., and shown photos of Fader, Clark denied involvement and said, “They can have DNA. I ain’t killed nobody. I don’t give a damn what [they] got.”

Prosecutor Scott said the defense’s suggestion that Clark didn’t put his hand on Fader’s car at the time of the attack was ridiculous.” He said the same thing about the notion of a “mystery man” on a motorcycle.

But Scott, along with prosecutor Aleathea McRoberts, argued the DNA matches to Clark are undeniable.

“There is no reasonable doubt,” Scott said, after displaying the dress and pillowcase for the jurors.

The prosecutors said investigators ruled out the involvement of any of Fader’s relatives, as well as Fader’s then-boyfriend, and an exboyfriend who was then facing domestic battery charges.

At the time she was killed, Fader was the divorced mother of a 10-year-old girl, and 5- and 3-year-old boys. She worked part-time as a seamstress at her family’s upholstery business, and also worked some hours as a cashier at the Breakers hotel in Palm Beach.

Before sending the jurors home on Monday, Judge Burton asked them to pack an overnight bag and bring it to the courthouse Tuesday “just in case.”

The law requires juries in cases where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty to be sequestered until there is a verdict. The jury would be put in a hotel overnight Tuesday if they have to return the following day.

If Clark is convicted, it’s not yet clear when the punishment phase would happen.

Under Florida’s new death penalty law, unanimous jury votes now are required to impose capital punishment. It would be the first use of the updated law in Palm Beach County.

Clark