THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 15, 1995 TAG: 9508150255
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
A Deep Creek businessman convicted of paying $3,000 to have his wife murdered in 1993 was sentenced Monday to life in prison.
Circuit Judge Russell I. Townsend Jr. upheld a jury's recommended sentence of Clark Bedsole, 46, owner of Clark Electric.
Bedsole was charged with hiring Marlon Williams to kill his wife, 44-year-old Helen Bedsole, on Nov. 9, 1993. She was found dead in the kitchen of her Geneva Shores home, shot once in the head and once in the neck.
The Bedsoles were high school sweethearts, and the couple had two children. They had been married for 25 years but were undergoing a nasty divorce.
Before Judge Townsend's sentence, Bedsole pleaded his case one last time, admitting his drug use and failures as a husband and father, but steadfastly maintaining his innocence.
``In no way did I have anything to do with my wife's dying,'' Bedsole said crying. ``I never in any way contracted or agreed . . . to do any harm to my wife.
``I'm a bad husband and a bad father,'' he said, sobbing, but ``I had nothing to do with her dying. Please believe me. It's the truth.''
Townsend also sentenced Bedsole to a mandatory three years in prison for using a firearm in the commission of a murder, and upheld the jury's recommendation of a $50,000 fine.
Relatives of Helen Bedsole, wearing yellow-and-red roses, smiled and thanked Commonwealth's Attorney David Williams after the sentencing.
Bedsole was arrested after a police investigation revealed a history of abuse and violence in their rocky marriage. A police informant helped them obtain an audiotaped confession from Williams.
Williams said Bedsole hired him to kill Helen because she was going to take half his assets. Williams also said that Bedsole would be the beneficiary of Helen Bedsole's life insurance policy, which was worth more than $100,000.
Bedsole, although not the triggerman, could have received the death penalty for his role in the murder-for-hire scheme.
Williams, 22, of Portsmouth, pleaded guilty to capital murder and firearms charges last month. He could receive the death penalty. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 10.
In an unrelated case, he also is accused of slashing the throat of an elderly woman in Suffolk on Oct. 2, 1994. During an earlier court appearance, Williams told Townsend that he plans to plead guilty to charges of malicious wounding and statutory burglary in that case.
David Williams said he did not seek the death penalty against Bedsole because the case could not meet the requirements of the law. To do so, the prosecutor would have to have proved that Bedsole represented a future danger to society or that his crime was heinous.
``The evidence simply wasn't there to justify the request,'' Williams said.
Bedsole, who has no prior criminal history, will appeal his conviction. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Clark Bedsole
Helen Bedsole
KEYWORDS: MURDER SHOOTING MURDER FOR HIRE CONVICTION by CNB