Ahmad Clewis-Green was sane when he beat Esperanza Pardue to death and stuffed her into a multi-gallon drum, a Denver jury decided Friday.
After a three-day trial and six hours of deliberation, the jurors found Clewis-Green was legally culpable for her death despite a plea of insanity.
Judge Christina M. Habas immediately sentenced Clewis-Green, 21, to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
There was no dispute Clewis-Green killed Pardue, a 27-year-old woman he claims had sex with him for $10 in his Denver apartment.
When she asked for her money, Clewis-Green said he backhanded her in the face then continued to control and terrorize her before beating her to death with a lead pipe.
The murder happened, Clewis-Green told police, after he killed his cat and liked the feeling.
In closing arguments, defense attorney Phelicia Kossie-Butler said Clewis-Green stepped in and out of reality throughout his life and he didn’t know that the movie in his head had come true until he saw Pardue dead on the floor of his apartment.
“I always start off the good guy and then I hurt them and then I kill them,” Clewis-Green told a detective during a tearful interview. “I always become the killer in the end.”
Kossie-Butler told jurors they can’t be sure Pardue was a prostitute or if that was just the way Clewis-Green cast her in his “movie.” There may have never been a dead cat, she said.
“Mr. Clewis-Green did not have the ability to discern right from wrong,” she said.
Pardue’s body was found in the barrel Oct. 28, 2008 in the 2200 block of Arapahoe Street just a few blocks from Clewis-Green’s apartment. The words “blood” and “dragon” were written with a marker on her left thigh.
Clewis-Green’s mother turned him into police after she found out through news reports that his confession to her for killing the woman was not a delusion.
Pamela Clewis testified her son’s mental illness began at age 3 and years of trying to help him and keep him on his medication failed. At one point, she wanted to relinquish custody of him because she was afraid to live with him and her younger daughter.
Prosecutors convinced jurors Clewis-Green accomplished a methodical goal to kill, which shows he was not insane at the time.
And two court-appointed psychiatrists determined while Clewis-Green had mental health problems, he was not legally insane when he murdered Pardue.
“We would all rest easy if we thought only people not in their right minds did what he did to Esperanza Pardue,” prosecutor Bonnie Benedetti said in closing arguments. “He is not crazy. He is responsible for all these actions and he did so while he was completely sane.”
Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com
