Clayton and Molly Daniels

This is one of the few cases that I blog about that does not involve a murder. There was a “plan” for a death; there were other crimes; there was even a dead body involved. These things alone make the case interesting. However, the other side of this case is the almost humor in the stupidity, arrogance and idiotic ideas of the perpetrators. The fact that they thought they could get away with their crime seems so ridiculous. I do not think the show exists any more, I could be wrong, but there used to be a show called America's Dumbest Criminals. I completely believe that Clay and Molly Daniels would be candidates to be on that show.

On June 18, 2004 authorities in Leander Texas were called. My research was not clear as to whether when called if there was a vehicle still on fire, or even if it was hot at all. In the end what they did find was a Chevy Cavalier down in a ravine that had been burnt beyond recognition. The fire had burned so hot that even the metal on the vehicle had began to melt away. It was said that investigators thought it was suspicious right away but of course they had to have some more investigating done before deciding for sure. They could tell that someone had been in the vehicle but because the fire had burned so heavily the head and the legs of the person were no longer there, and all but ash. There were no skid marks on the road leading down to the ravine either. It was possible that the person behind the wheel had fallen asleep and had inadvertently driven down the ravine, crashed and the car caught on fire. But, a few of the officers had seen many car accidents and nothing compared to this one. None of it really seemed to make sense.

Investigators were able to determine that the car belonged to Clay and Molly Daniels, local residents. They went to the couple's home and talked to Molly. Molly told them that Clay had gone to his mother's home the night before but had never returned. Investigators would later say that Molly seemed to be unusually calm about hearing that her husband's car was in a ravine, had been burnt and that there had been someone in it, someone who was now obviously dead. It was said that family members saw some items that somehow had survived the fire and identified them as belonging to Clay.

Initial identification by the coroner, based on the information they were given also seem to identify the person from the car as Clay but I am quite confused of this. It was not just that my research indicated that everyone simply believed that because it was Clay's car, and some of his belongings that it was him, it said the coroner positively identified the body as belonging to him. It was said that the body no longer had a a head or legs and presumably the hands were likely too charred to obtain fingerprints so, in my opinion the only way to positively identify the body would have been through DNA. In my opinion this should have been done before any positive identification was released. Not only would a DNA test tell the coroner if the body belonged to Clay but as a Google search says the “simplest thing that DNA can tell you” is if it is a man or a woman. It does seem that despite a positive identification by the coroner at some point DNA was ran and compared to Clay's mother. But again.... remember, “the simplest thing that DNA can tell you” is whether someone was a man or a woman.

But, while investigators had suspicions and had to wait further investigation, Molly was moving on with her life. Her co-workers had gathered some money to help her out. Molly even put out flyers looking for a babysitter saying she was a recently widowed mother of two. She had a four year old son from a previous relationship, although Clay was the only father he had ever known, and the couple had a one year old daughter at the time of Clay's alleged death. Clay had mainly been a stay at home dad so now Molly needed someone to watch the children. Those in the community were sympathetic and helpful.

A few weeks after Clay had allegedly (and by now I know you are catching this phrase) died Molly began dating a man named Jacob “Jake” Gregg. It was clear that she had introduced Jake to her son as her new boyfriend. In reality Jake was Clay Daniels with dyed hair. It is unclear exactly who “Jake” was introduced to besides the children. It would seem unreasonable, but you can never tell with this case, that he would have been introduced to anyone that actually knew him prior to his supposed demise.

In the meantime DNA had been compared between Clay's mother and the body found in the burned out vehicle. It was proven that they were not related. But, let me go back to where I talked about before about how DNA absolutely can tell the gender of a person. I can only assume that at this point not only did they not find a genetic connection between the body and Clay's mother, but they now knew that the body in the vehicle was not even male. I cannot tell you how and when this plot was fully brought to light or exactly what investigators had when they made arrests in this case. I can only tell you what they had in the end and the theories behind it. One of the theories involves a completely different crime which I will obviously be getting into.

I can tell you that a search was done of Molly's home and of her computer. There was evidence that there had been ample effort made to create a new identification, birth certificate, and Texas driver's license for “Jacob Gregg.” There were also searches done about how to burn a body beyond recognition and how to fool arson investigators. Molly, and maybe Clay, would later admit that they had done searches on people who had fairly recently been deceased and buried in a local cemetery that was said to have a significant amount of people who were indigent and had few family members. Allegedly it was her idea that the body used would be that of eighty-one year old Charlotte Davis who had died in December of 2003, six months prior. Charlotte had been mentally and intellectually disabled all of her life and so in Molly's thinking she at her age she did not have a lot of close family members left who cared a lot about her or would notice anything at her grave. It is not clear if one or both of the couple dug the grave. There was some indication that Molly did it alone but I am unsure that was possible. The body was then put into Clay's vehicle along with one of his hats and dressed in some of his clothes. Lighter fluid had been spread throughout, specifically around the body and the car had been rolled down an embankment after being lit.

Prosecutors would say that the ploy was to obtain $110,000 in life insurance money. Defense attorney's, who could not argue really that their clients were innocent argued that it was not the greed for the life insurance money that was motive, but something else. At the time of all of this Clay was twenty-four years old. It had been found that when he was sixteen he had raped a seven year old cousin. It was years later that this crime had come to light and eventually he pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault on a child. Now, there is some confusion as to what his sentence actually was. One thing stated that “under a deferred adjudication deal, he had to serve 30 days in jail to start on June 21, 2004 (just a few days after the car fire) and then ten years on probation.” It also pointed out that he had to register as a sex offender. However, other parts of my research indicate that he initially was not to serve any jail time and only had the probation and registration requirements but that he had failed to report to his probation officer which had resulted in the thirty day jail sentence. Either way he was to report to the jail on June 21^st, just three days after the car fire. Molly's defense argued that her motives behind the plot was keeping her family together. She “feared” according first to her lawyer and then by her own words to the judge, that Clay having to register as a sex offender would prevent him from being around their children. While so many others were speaking of the ignorance of not only the plot itself but the fact that after they remained in the same area and did not move away, the defense was arguing it was still about keeping her family together.

From my understanding while both Clay and Molly pleaded guilty to their charges, a jury still decided their sentence. Molly pleaded guilty to insurance fraud and hindering apprehension in May 2005, while Clay pleaded guilty to insurance fraud, arson and the desecration of a body. Molly's jury decided to give her the maximum sentence of twenty years for insurance fraud. She was also given a ten year sentence on the other charge to run concurrently and fined $10,000. After her sentencing her father told the media, “If I was on the jury I might have gone for the max. That might make me sound like a bad father, but she did something really wrong.” In fairness it was said that he he had hoped she would get less but was not surprised at the sentence. It is not clear when she was released from prison. Her family became guardians of the children while she was incarcerated.

Clay's case is a bit more complicated. While he too pleaded guilty for the charges related to the faking of his death, he also still had the issues relating to the sexual assault. My information states that he received a thirty year sentences and that “1/3 of the 30 year sentence was in connection to a “probation” violation for the assault.” There were some that stated confusion on why he had initially received the sentence that he did as he was facing up to twenty-five years. Apparently it is a mandatory twenty-five years if the victim was under six. This victim was only a few months past that time. But, when I went to the Texas Department of Corrections website I became a bit more confused. It states that he is currently incarcerated with a “max out” date in December of 2034. He was eligible for parole starting in 2014 and his last denial occurred in March of 2021. His next hearing his in March of 2024. But, here is where it gets confusing. According to the website the sexual assault apparently had occurred in July of 1997 and he was charged with two counts of “aggravated sexual assault of a child” and a charge of indecency with a child. It states that he received 20 years for each of those charges. His max out date indicates the thirty-year sentence he received in the faking of his death and related charges so if he was later sentenced to twenty years for the sexual assault it must be running concurrently (together).

As I said in the beginning, these people should have been given an award for being the dumbest criminals. This was 2004, not 1954. Forensic technology may not have been what it is in 2022, but it definitely was not ancient. Aside from the stupidity of thinking that this would work in the first place, there are so many other stupid (and there is no other word I feel would be as fitting) moves made here. Lets start with the fact that they picked a female body. They had no way of knowing just how much of that body would burn even by using an accelerator and how identifiable it would be, let alone DNA testing being run. I mean they had the means and know how to search things like making new identifications, plastic surgeons in Mexico and how to fool arson investigators but they did not search enough to see how easily a body could be identified? I mean, lets be real here, not that it would have been a valid argument but if they at least had a male body and the DNA did not match Clay's mother they could argue that he was switched at birth or adopted.... or something. The fact that it was a female body just blows my mind. Then, the whole idea that they stayed in the exact same area and reintroduced him to her son as someone else, again, blows my mind. It was said that Molly believed that Clay had been “railroaded” in the molestation case but he pleaded guilty to those charges.

While what Clay and Molly did was disgusting in and of itself and obviously what they did was a crime but I am thankful that it was not a worse crime. However, I think they showed that being master criminals is not something they were capable of being. They were caught very quickly and I have no doubt they would have no matter the crime they attempted to commit.