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James Earl Garrett & Jeffery Byrd Johnson Jr.

911 Call From Teen Slaying Suspects Released

2 Teens Charged With Murder In Shootings

POSTED: 12:28 pm CST January 14, 2008
UPDATED: 7:28 pm CST January 14, 2008

Emergency 911 tapes of a New Year's Day slaying of two women in Dickson County have been released.

Video: Teen Suspects Blame 'Dark Figure' In Slayings

The two boys who made the call, 15-year-old Jeffery Byrd Johnson Jr. and 17-year-old James Earl Garrett, have been charged with murder in the slayings of their foster mother, 39-year-old Mary Clark, and Clark’s 66-year-old mother-in-law, Gail Clark, who was visiting from Massachusetts.

Police said the two women were found shot to death in separate rooms in Mary Clark’s White Bluff home.

Johnson, officials said, made the call to 911 while Garrett joined the call later.

"Her mother-in-law is shot in the head but I didn't see my foster mother," Johnson told the dispatcher. "I know her mother-in-law is dead, and I think my foster mom's dead. I don't know."

He then began explaining what he and Garrett were doing at the time of the shooting.

"We was at the house in the room watching TV and we heard loud noises," Johnson said. "I hid under the bed, and (my foster brother) hid in the closet. We saw blood coming out of (Gail Clark's) head."

They said they saw a dark figure run through the yard after the shooting.

The tapes revealed that the two teens were calm for having just seen a dead woman in their house.

“Could you tell anything about that figure that you saw run across the yard?” the dispatcher asked.

“(From) my bunk, all I could see was some black figure running across. … I had my light off in my room,” one of the teens said.

“What’s your foster mom’s name?”

“Mary Clark.”

“What’s her mother-in-law’s name? Do you know?”

“Our foster mom always told us to call her grams, so we never knew her name.”

Mary Clark & Gail Clark
Mary Clark & Gail Clark

Officials said the two teens could be tried as adults.

Mary Clark's husband and Gail Clark's son, Bill Clark, still has questions he would like answered.

"But why? That's what I want to know. What's the motive? Why my mother? Why my wife? They've done nothing but try to help these people," he said.

A judge has also ordered the two boys to undergo a mental evaluation.


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