State v. Clements

BROTHERTON, Justice:

This is an appeal from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Hancock County, which found the appellant, Calvin Clements, guilty of one count of voluntary manslaughter and one count of first degree murder, with no recommendation of mercy.

On August 18, 1981, two young women, Belinda Harper, 20, and Paula Gray, 17, disappeared from the El Villa Laundromat in Wheeling. Their decomposed remains were found eight months later in a garbage dump near a house in which the appellant lived. Yellow plastic tubing was found tied around Belinda Harper’s neck and her skull was fractured.

Short…