A Pompano Beach man convicted of two murders this week now faces the possibility of execution by lethal injection, the first case in Broward County under a new law that no longer requires a unanimous vote to send a killer to death row.
Clarck Paul was found guilty Wednesday of first-degree murder in the 2016 shooting death of Lamont Smalls, 22, of Lauderdale Lakes. Just 34 minutes earlier, on his way to kill Smalls, Paul got into a road-rage incident that ended with him fatally shooting Carlos Senluis, 25, of Deerfield Beach, a victim deputies described as someone who was tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time.
For the murder of Senluis, Paul was convicted of second-degree murder. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
But Smalls is the victim who might send him to death row.
Prosecutors and investigators say Paul believed Smalls was cooperating with police in the investigation into the attempted murder of Brandon Smith, also of Lauderdale Lakes. Smith had been shot in the head 13 days earlier in the same neighborhood as Smalls. He survived, but Paul was never charged in that case.
Paul, 35, will be the first defendant in Broward facing the death penalty under its newest death penalty law. The jury that convicted him will still be required to find, unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt, that there were aggravating factors in Smalls’ murder that warrant execution. Killing someone to keep that person from testifying meets that standard under the law.
So do other violent felony convictions, including the murder of Senluis and the attempted murder of Senluis’ passenger, Gabriel Severino.
But only eight jurors are required to find that the aggravating factors outweigh mitigators that might be presented by the defense. Until earlier this year, juries had to be unanimous in their recommendations, a requirement that led to the death penalty being rejected for convicted cop killers and, notably, for Nikolas Cruz, who shot and killed 17 students and faculty at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.
The penalty phase of Paul’s trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 29.
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457.