Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Three Years After Double Murder of Engaged Couple

A brutal double murder was committed in Nevada County on or about May 16, 1992.

The young couple, Jeff Lewis, 24, and Malissa Clark, 21, were found shot to death in a rural part of the county. They had been engaged to be married.

Three years later a man was formally charged in their deaths, making this one of the top stories of 1995.

On Aug. 10, 1995, Nevada County Sheriff Harold Vines traveled to Altus, Okla. to pick up Joe Louis Dansby and bring him back to Prescott in connection with the double murder.

Shortly after Dansby's arrival back in Prescott, he was taken before Eighth Judicial District Judge Joe Griffin, where he was told of the charges filed against him and advised of his constitutional rights.

Griffin explained Dansby was being charged with the murder and rape of Malissa Clark and the murder of Jeff Lewis. Griffin also told Dansby of the possible punishment he could face if found guilty. Capital murder, Griffin said, is a Class Y felony punishable by life inprisonment without the possibility of parole, or death.

At the initial hearing, Dansby had no attorney present, though he informed the court he would be represented by R.S. McCullough of Little Rock.

Griffin, acting on behalf of the court, entered a plea of not guilty for the accused. However, because of the nature of the crime and the fact Dansby had to be extradited from Oklahoma, the judge refused to set bond in the case.

He also scheduled an arraignment date for Aug. 31, at which time Dansby was supposed to return with legal counsel.

However, this date passed without Dansby having an attorney retained in his behalf. Griffin then rescheduled the arraignment for Sept. 21 and appointed local barrister Gene Hale to act as liaison between Dansby and McCullough.

On Sept. 21, though, Hale informed the court McCullough had sent him a letter stating he had represented Dansby in an earlier case, but had not been retained to act as his counsel on this matter.

Upon learning McCullough would not be representing Dansby, Griffin appointed Hale to act on the defendant's behalf as public defender.

Charles Potter, a Texarkana lawyer, was named co-counsel in the matter. McCullough, in his letter to Hale, stated he would be available to offer any technical services the attorneys may need in the case.

A deadline of Dec. 1 was set for all motions to be in from both sides, with a pre-trial date scheduled for Dec. 11. The trial was originally slated for Jan. 16, but has since been changed at the agreement of the state and Hale.

The jury in the case will be death qualified, as decided in the Dec. 11 hearing.

Hale filed about 40 motions to be heard before the court during the hearing. Each was taken in turn, heard, discussed, debated and decided upon.

Griffin informed the attorneys on both sides the jury would not be prejudiced by hearing both cases simultaneously. This means Dansby will be tried for the Lewis and Clark murders in one trial instead of two.

Additionally, the proceedings may be videotaped, with a camcorder set up in a corner to capture the goings on. The tapes, it was agreed, will only be used by the attorneys and will not be considered the official record of the trial. This, it was agreed, will be done by the court reporter.

Because of the number of motions and complexity of the case, Griffin set a pre-trial hearing for Jan. 8, 1996. He also moved the trial date to July 22, 1996. Again because of the complexity of the evidence, the judge agreed to accept motions until Feb. 29, 1996.