The Murder of Brittany Eldridge

 

This is one of those cases that as I sit down to write I am unsure exactly what I think about the case. Sometimes when this happens by the time I am done I have leaned a little more in one direction. Currently I am unsure with the information that I have researched that this will be one of those cases. By the time I am done, I may still be on the fence.

In December 2011 twenty-five year old Brittany Eldridge was murdered in her Knoxville Tennessee apartment. Investigators believe she was preparing for a shower when she was attacked from the back.. She was choked and suffocated and then stabbed in the neck two times with what was believed to be scissors. Brittany was nine month pregnant with a son she planned to name Ezekiel. He would die in womb.

The father of Brittany's baby was a co-worker named Norman Eugene Clark. When Brittany had not shown up at work Clark called her mother and asked her to check on her because he could not reach her. Brittany's mother went to her apartment and found her body. The police were obviously called. Inside the home the contents of Brittany's purse were thrown about; televisions had been removed from their stands and placed on the floor; drawers had been open and rummaged through. But, according to investigators nothing was taken, not even Brittany's debit card that had the password code attached to it. Law enforcement believed that the scene was staged to look like a robbery. They noted the lack of forced entry.

Of course Norman Clark became a prime suspect right away and he was interviewed. He consented to have his car and phone searched. Investigators launched an investigation into Clark and learned that he was involved with several women at the same time, and it seems that none of them knew of the others. They learned through text messages that Clark was supposed to meet with Brittany on the night of her murder but he claims he did not show. It was said that his phone had been shut off about 9:06 pm that night but I never saw where it stated that when his phone was turned back on. It was also said that between 9 and 10 Brittany had sent three messages to Clark but I found nothing that told what those text messages said. It is not clear exactly what Clark claimed to have been doing but at 10:40pm another girlfriend of his, who was said to live just a few miles from Brittany, says she woke up and he was “in her bedroom.”

I am going to be fair here and say I am uncertain what happened or what was found that two and a half years after Brittany's murder Clark was arrested on May 14, 2014. My research says that there was no DNA found, at least none pointing to Clark, nor was the weapon, thought to be scissors found. In August of 2015 Clark went on trial. Prosecutors seemed to bank on his personal life as being the basis for their theory. They claimed that Clark killed Brittany because she had threatened to sue him for child support and that the mother of his other daughter would do the same (I found something later that said she was already receiving child support) and he already had “money issues.” Clark's attorney's argued the burglary angle. The trial ended with a hung jury. They had voted 11-1 for acquittal. Prosecutors decided to try him again.

Now, when there is more than one trial in a case prosecutors tend to have the advantage and in this case that was surely true. Both sides knew that all but one of the jurors had not believed that the state had proven their case. That meant if the prosecutors wanted to win they were going to have to step up their game. After the trial Clark did an interview with Dateline and prosecutors attempted to sue to get the footage before it aired. It was not clear if they were successful. Clark had been held in jail from the time of his arrest in May of 2014 until the en of his trial in August of 2015. At that point his bail was reduced and he was released.

Clark's second trial took place in September of 2017. From all that I can tell the only real difference is that prosecutors showed dash cam footage taken by a police officer speaking to him a few hours after hearing the news. They argued that he was extremely calm.

Aside from arguing that the crime scene was a burglary it appears the defense also spoke of the timeline. It is unclear when Clark says he got to the other girlfriends home but as I stated earlier she says she woke up at 10:40 to find him there. I cannot say exactly what time prosecutors argued the murders took place but obviously sometime after 9:00 as they spoke of his phone being off. I am also curious about the alleged three text messages that Brittany sent him between nine and ten, what they said, whether it was her, and when was the last one. The defense argued that if Clark were the murderer he would have had to do the deed, ransack the apartment (without leaving DNA), somehow and someway get rid of his bloody clothes and the weapon and then drive to the other woman's home. They also argued that twenty DNA samples were taken from the scene and not one of them matched Clark.

Just as his first trial ended in a hung jury, so did his second trial only this time instead of the jury being 11-1 for acquittal they were 10-2 for conviction. The prosecutor decided not to seek a third trial unless new evidence comes to light. Now, I want to be clear on what this means because I found a blog in which it was stated first that Clark was found “not guilty on both counts, twice” and then later stated he was “found innocent of all charges.” This is blatantly false and it is statements like this that irritate me because it gives out wrong information. First, if he would have been found “not guilty” in the first trial he never could have been tried the second time. That is nearly the number one rule of law... double jeopardy. But, because there was never a guilty plea by Clark who continues to maintain his innocence and neither jury was able to come to a decision this case is not resolved in the least. Does that mean it will ever be solve? In my opinion, no.

Did Norman Clark murder Brittany Eldridge? I do not know. But, based on the information I found, or I should say the lack of information I found, there was not enough evidence against him to prove anything. Prosecutors know that they need evidence and in today's world juries want DNA and forensic evidence. There apparently was none of that here. The dash cam video proves nothing. We all know that everyone deals with stress, grief and life experiences differently and that appears to be the best they had. Of course he would have been the prime suspect, and of course the fact that he apparently was involved with several women at once did not look good for him. But, those things do not make him a murderer. I do not believe that Clark will ever be convicted, even if he is tried again and there's absolutely no way that anyone else will ever be convicted for Brittany's murder.

Any evidence found against Clark at this late stage would be considered tainted considering there have already been two trials. The same could be true about evidence that could point to someone else but the prosecutor would have a very hard time selling a case to a jury with a new defendant. Any defense attorney worth his or her salt would hammer the fact that the prosecutors were so sure in from 2014.... until presumably someone else was charged that Clark was their man and they of course would likely push what they could about him. The long and short of it is that I honestly do not think this case will ever be solved.

And that is the biggest injustice of it all. A young woman and her soon to be born child lost their lives and no one will likely ever be held accountable.