A woman who pleaded no contest in connection to the death of her son avoided the death penalty.
Christian Clark was sentenced to life without parole on July 12, 2019, plus an additional 7-14 years. Prosecutors say Clark smothered her 17-month-old son and sent videos of the child’s body to the boy’s father.
Clark avoided the death penalty after agreeing to a plea deal.
Her son, Andre Price III, died in November 2016.
According to the criminal complaint, Clark was having a fight with the child’s father via text message. Clark was upset at having to clean up toilet water the children spilled but mostly because Price had left for work earlier in the day and Clark believed he planned to have sex with another woman.
Clark sent a barrage of angry texts, threats, photos and videos November 1 because she believed Price planned to be with another woman. Price actually went to his sister’s after work to avoid rekindling an argument he had with Clark.
“Ya kids ain’t safe here I don’t want them here” and “Answer me or im going to jail for child endangerment” were among dozens of texts listed in the criminal complaint. Then came a message about an hour into the rant that said, “I’m killing them,” followed by a laughing emoji with tears coming from its eyes, police said.
At various points, Clark also texted photos of each child — including one of the boy face-down on an air mattress with his face in a comforter.
By 10:14 p.m., Clark sent the first video, showing the children lying face-down with Clark narrating, “Ahh look Angel is still alive and sweating your son on the other hand is not even breathing, I wish I could keep the camera still.”
“Im sure it’ll hurt me one im sitting in jail & you got all the evidence you need to I can’t even say he suffocated in his sleep or say idk what happened,” Clark texted.
Another video five minutes later showed Clark grabbing Angel’s head, prompting the girl to cry. When Clark grabbed the boy’s head, he didn’t respond, police said.
“First of all she is clearly fine, because watch, see she is not dead. Him on the other hand, he doesn’t budge. So you might want to call the ambulance,” Clark said in the video. A minute later she texted, “All cus you wanted to go (have sex with) her & come here when you like.”
At 10:23 p.m. Clark acknowledged she’s responsible for the boy’s death — and police say she later admitted smothering the boy by holding him face-down on the air mattress for about a minute.
Clark called 911 more than an hour later, at Price’s urging, and police found the lifeless boy. Clark first claimed not to know how he died, then confessed to smothering him on an air mattress. Clark also tried to smother Angel.
Clark had sent pictures or videos of the children’s limp bodies before, which is why Price didn’t take them seriously at first.
County police noted in their criminal complaint that Price also didn’t alert authorities when Clark texted him pictures of her holding the children by the throat around Andre III’s first birthday. Price posted those pictures to Facebook with a caption that said: “These two pictures she is choking them because was (sic) ain’t together ….”
Price responded only six times in the texts printed in the complaint, at one point promising to take a bus home but at other times ignoring Clark’s threats to harm his children. Only after Clark sent a third video at 11:09 p.m., showing her picking up the boy’s limp body by the arm and tossing him on the bed, did Price ask Clark to try to revive him, the complaint said.
“Try to wake him up I said hold him,” he texted at 11:10 p.m.
“Its okay Im dialing 911,” Clark responded.
“You need to if he dead,” Price said.
Defense attorney James Sheets said those posts supported his claim that Clark had threatened the children previously but didn’t physically harm them.
Price still has court-supervised visits with his daughter, who is living with a relative.
“I feel as though the loss of his son makes him a victim just as much as the young man that lost his life,” Sheets said.
On July 29, 2019, Andre Price Jr. was sentenced to 11 to 23 months behind bars or possible alternative housing and four years of probation for not telling police his girlfriend was abusing their toddler.
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