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Clifton
L. RAY Jr.
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Rape
Number of victims: 3 +
Date of murders: 1987 / 1990 / 1992
Date of birth: 1959
Victims profile: Deborah Taylor
/ Joycie Flowers / His neighbor
Method of murder: Strangulation
Location: Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Status: Sentenced to life in prison in 2007
Conviction in 1990 murder for man
called serial killer
Mops.mo.gov
May 2007
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Prosecutors
say the conviction of a man in a 1990 strangling case ends a serial
killer's career.
A Jackson County jury convicted Clifton Ray on Friday
of strangling Joycie Flowers 17 years ago. His only possible sentence
for first-degree murder is life without parole.
Ray was about to be paroled three years ago after a
1995 murder conviction for strangling his neighbor but prosecutors used
DNA evidence to charge him with the 1987 murder of Deborah Taylor and
the 1990 murder of Flowers.
In both cases, the women were strangled and semen
with DNA matching Ray's was found in or on them. The Taylor murder case
is pending.
Ray is a suspect in about six other murders. After
the verdict Friday, a prosecutor told jurors that Ray's DNA matched that
on Taylor and another victim, but charges could not be filed in that
case because samples mistakenly were destroyed.
Prosecutors said Ray killed Flowers about May 24,
1990. Her body was found in a homeless camp. After the verdict, Flowers'
daughter, Janel Flowers of Kansas City, cried on the shoulder of
assistant prosecutor Dan Miller. “She can rest in peace now,” she said
of her mother. “Praise God.”
Miller said: “It's about time. I don't know what else
to say.” Defense attorney David Bell said he would appeal and declined
to comment further.
Prosecutors had argued unsuccessfully before trial
that the Flowers and Taylor homicides were linked by DNA and should be
tried together.
But Judge Charles Atwell ruled that Missouri case law
does not allow the use of DNA as a sole reason to try cases together.
The defense argued that Flowers and Ray may have had
sex, but that did not prove Ray killed her. Bell argued that another man
may have killed Flowers after Ray had sex with her. An earlier trial had
ended in a hung jury when two jurors agreed with the defense argument.
Miller said he would try Ray for Taylor's homicide.
And he predicted that Missouri law soon would allow cases to be linked
on such DNA evidence, which some states already allow.
