Toledo man gets 25 years in prison in Maumee Bay park stabbing

Maurice Clark, 23, found guilty in death of Karl Avery

3/20/2017

Maurice Clark, right, with his attorney, Brad Hubbell, left, listens to his sentence for involuntary manslaughter and two counts of felonious assault at Maumee Bay State Park last June in Lucas County Common Pleas Court today.

The Blade/Amy E. Voigt
Buy This Image

An East Toledo man who stabbed another man to death and wounded two others at Maumee Bay State Park last summer was sentenced today to 25 years in prison.

Maurice Clark Jr., 23, of the 1400 block of Kedron Street entered Alford pleas March 8 and was found guilty by Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Gary Cook of a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter for the death of Karl Avery, 24, of Toledo.

Clark also entered Alford pleas and was found guilty of two counts of felonious assault for the non-fatal stabbings of Leon Oldham and Jacob Lickert the same evening.

In addition to the agreed-upon 25-year sentence, Judge Cook ordered that Clark serve an additional 751 days in prison for an unrelated case that he was on parole for when he committed the new offenses.

Family members of the victim did not speak in court but expressed outrage afterward at the sentence Maurice Clark received for killing Mr. Avery.

"This is why people are out here doing street justice, to be honest," said Angel Morris, Mr. Avery's aunt. "We're not getting justice. That's why everybody is killing each other. What is 11 years? I can take someone's life and that's all I get?"

While Clark was sentenced to the maximum 11 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter, he received seven years for each of the felonious assault charges plus more than two years for committing felonies while on parole in an unrelated felonious assault case. Judge Cook ordered all of the sentences to be served consecutively meaning Clark will spend some 27 years in prison.

Clark's brother, Elijah Clark, was sentenced today to four years in prison for two counts of complicity to felonious assault for his part in the June 11 altercation.

Prosecutors said Maurice Clark got into an verbal argument with Mr. Avery and Mr. Oldham that escalated to a shoving match when Clark pulled out a knife and stabbed Mr. Avery in the chest and cut Mr. Oldham in the neck.

Mr. Oldham ran off and encountered Mr. Lickert, who he'd never met but who tried to help him and calm him down. Maurice “recruited” his brother to follow Mr. Oldham and fight Mr. Oldham and Mr. Lickert, said Brian Boos, an assistant county prosecutor.

“When the two approached Oldham and Lickert, Maurice Clark then stabbed Lickert, who was merely rendering aid, and he was stabbed in the arm,” Mr. Boos said at a prior hearing.

After the melee, Maurice Clark disposed of the knife he used to stab the three victims by throwing it into the Maumee River, Mr. Boos said.