DANIELLE HADDON - 15 yo (1989) - Long Beach CA

LONG BEACH - When Royal
Clark assaulted and murdered Gail Long's 14-year-old daughter, it left
"a hold in my heart that will never be filled."


That was Long's statement to Clark in court Thursday, when he
was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to the 1989
murder.


Clark did not look at Long, who stood about 15 feet from the
man who murdered her daughter, Wilson High School sophomore Danielle
Marie Haddon.


The trauma caused by the death of her daughter more than 22 years ago has not lessened over time, Long said.


Long's mother and her daughter's father also struggled with the grief until their deaths in 2009 and 2005, respectively.


But Long was not entirely alone as she faced her daughter's killer.


With her was Kit Farkas, the mother of 15-year-old Laurie
Farkas, a Fresno High School teen who was killed by Clark in 1991, less
than two years after Danielle's murder.


Had it not been for DNA evidence, which was found by Long
Beach Police Department's Cold Case Homicide Unit, Danielle's murder may
never have been solved.


Outside of court, the two moms said they never would have
dreamed they would one day share the same crushing grief as they tried
to look into the face of the man who caused such devastation.


Their wish that he never walk free was granted Thursday by Long Beach Superior Court Judge Judith Meyer.


Clark avoided a possible death sentence by pleading guilty last week to all counts in
Danielle's murder. He was already serving time on San Quentin's Death
Row for Lauries' murder and attempted sexual assault, as well as the
attempted murder of Farkas' best friend, Angie Higgins, 14, in the
Fresno area.

As part of last week's plea, Clark admitted to using an electrical
cord to strangle Danielle on the night of Oct. 30, 1989, in her
grandmother's Long Beach home.


He also waived all rights to appeal the sentence.


"Mr. Clark, when you killed my only child, it hurt me deeply,"
Long said. "You destroyed so many lives that you deserve the death
penalty."


The 50-year-old kept his head down while his attorney - Public
Defender Jennifer Friedman - shielded him from a media camera. Friedman
tried to have cameras barred from the sentencing, but was denied that
motion.


Outside the courtroom, Farkas said Clark was much more
disruptive in his 1992 trial, using his handcuffs and even a chair in an
effort to block his face.


Though Farkas did not know about Danielle's murder at the time
of her daughter's killing, she said she always believed Clark had
killed others.


Her belief, shared by prosecutors and police, was based in
part on his criminal past, which included the attempted murders of his
sister and her friend, and the near killing of another man whose throat
Clark slit during a robbery aboard a train.


The killings of Danielle and Laurie shared many similarities.
Both girls were in their early teens, both were assaulted in the same
manner, and both - as well as Angie, the friend who survived - were
strangled.


Angie testified Clark did not rape her or Laurie, though he
tried. She detailed the hours of abuse they suffered, with both of them
tied to a toilet at the Lost Lakes Recreation Area, before each girl was
choked with a rope and then dumped on desolate highways, one in Madera
County and one in a rural area of Fresno county.


Clark had curled Laurie's body into a fetal position placed
her in the middle of the road so that she would be hit by a car, Farkas
said.


Since he thought Angie was already dead, he threw her from his
Datsun 210. That likely saved her life, according to hospital staff, as
the motion of her hitting and ground and rolling got her heart beating
again and loosened the rope around her neck.


When she came to in the hospital, with her head swollen more
than twice its size, she was able to say three words: "Laurie, Roy,
cousin."


Laurie's cousin was Clark's girlfriend, and she was expecting
her third child with Clark at the time of Laurie's murder. He had been
welcomed into Laurie's home by her parents, she said.


Clark was on the phone with Laurie's father, asking about a
Super Bowl party, when detectives told the victim's dad to keep Clark on
the line as they raced over to his house.


"When they got there he had the bucket and the rope," and other items used in the slaying in his garage, Farkas said.


Both her ex and Angie chose not attend Thursday's sentencing, due to the emotional trauma.


Farkas said Angie will never be able to have children due to her injuries, and the scars still remain.


Even Clark's former girlfriend, Laurie's cousin, has found it difficult to keep up with the cases.


"She doesn't want to know details, she just wants him to get the maximum punishment he deserves," Farkas explained.


All three asked Farkas to give their love and condolences to Long.


The Long Beach mother said she had hoped, even after all these years, that her daughter's killer would be found.


"I remember they said there were a lot of fingerprints, a lot
of evidence, so I wasn't surprised," when detectives called her last
year, she said.


She recalled coming home on Oct. 31, 1989, and finding police
tape blocking her path and officers everywhere. Danielle had been home
alone, doing homework and talking to a friend on the phone, when she
answered a knock at the door the previous night.


The next morning, Danielle's grandmother found her dead in her bed.


"I had just paid to have her hair done," Long said Thursday,
gazing at a picture of her smiling daughter, who wore her long
strawberry blonde hair permed into spiral curls.


In another coincidence, one of the LBPD Homicide Detectives
assigned to review Danielle's cold murder case grew up in the Fresno
area and lived there when the Farkas murder occurred.


"It's like (Danielle and Laurie) were up there working to bring us all together," Detective Todd Johnson said.


"I wouldn't be surprised," Farkas added with a smile.


Long chimed in and that she too believes both girls are in heaven, looking down on their moms.


"And they can both rest now, now that he's gone for good," she said.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_20489844/man-gets-life-sentence-murder-14-year-old