‘Her face was black and blue.’ Coast murder trial testimony reveals history of domestic violence

Gary Wayne Wallace was drunk and slurring his words when he got on the phone with a 911 dispatcher to ask for help for a girlfriend he is accused of beating and strangling to death, according to testimony in his murder trial this week.

When Biloxi police Officer Robert Dronet got to the couple’s apartment on Judge Sekul Avenue around 11:50 p.m. on May 20, 2019, he noticed the lights were out. But, after he knocked, an obviously hysterical Wallace answered the door.

Wallace appeared to be crying and laughing at the same time when the officer encountered him, according to camera footage of the exchange.

“Go, go,” Wallace told the officer, directing Dronet to a back bedroom where the police officer found Penny Laine Clark, a 45-year-old twin sister and mother of two, face up and dying on a cold tile floor.

Clark was naked with the exception of a T-shirt that had been pulled up around her neck and shoulders, the officer said, exposing fresh bruising and other injuries to her body. In addition, the officer said, Clark had black eyes, blood seeping from her nose, mouth and ears, and lacerations on her head.

Despite attempts to save her, Clark died at Merit Health in Biloxi a short time later.

Former state medical examiner Mark LeVaughn performed the autopsy and determined Clark died of blunt force injuries consistent with a beating and strangulation.

Her injuries included bruising all over her body, he said, including on her inner forearms that would be consistent with a defense wound if she held her arms up in an attempt to lessen the blows.

In addition, LeVaungh said, some of the Clark’s teeth had been knocked out during the attack.

That and other testimony came out in Wallace’s first-degree murder trial this week in Harrison County Circuit Court in Biloxi. Judge Christopher Schmidt is presiding.

Assistant district attorneys George Huffman and Alison Baker contend Clark was the victim of homicide because of injuries consistent with an alleged violent attack involving domestic violence.

The state rested its case late Wednesday after putting on additional witnesses, including Wallace’s sister, Jamie Ratliff, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy and others.

Defense attorneys Alan Green, Angela Broun and Phill Wittman are challenging the prosecutor’s claims that Wallace fatally beat and strangled his girlfriend, noting that no one witnessed the attack.

Blood on the walls and floor

When Biloxi police got to the scene, the couple’s bedroom left clues of the alleged attack that happened there.

In police body camera footage from the scene, blood could be seen on the white sheets and pillows on the bed and other blood was on the tile floor next to Clark’s body.

The police officer said additional blood splatter was seen on a bedroom wall next to a calendar that hung there, with more found on a hallway wall next to a thermostat.

Police also found a blood stain on the bathroom floor.

Police noted and pictures showed at the trial a bloodied cut on Wallace’s hand between two of his fingers. In earlier reports, police had also reported finding additional blood-splattered under Wallace’s left arm and right bicep, with additional blood on the tip of his nose.

A 911 call for help

Wallace called 911 around 11:45 p.m. the night of the killing.

When asked when he last saw Clark conscious and alert prior to making the call, he didn’t specify a time, instead telling police it had been “about an hour and a half ago, two hours, three hours” earlier.

A 911 dispatcher said he seemed upset and eager to try to get help for Clark.

It was during that call, the dispatcher said, that she transferred Wallace to emergency medical personnel to walk him through how to perform CPR on Clark in an attempt to save her.

In a recording of the 911 call, Wallace could be heard counting, ‘’one, two, three” as he purportedly performed chest compressions on Clark.

Police got to the scene shortly thereafter.

Alcohol and a history of violence

When the police investigation first began, Wallace’s sister, Jamie Ratliff, told police her brother had a history of physical violence.

Ratliff even noted that she had to break up a fight between Wallace and Clark about a week earlier when she reported seeing her brother holding Clark in a “neckhold.”

In addition, Ratliff said, she said she had noticed other injuries to Clark a week prior to her death.

“Her face was black and blue,” she said. “Her ribs were messed up. They said she fell in front of the ... (a casino), but there’s no way.”

Ratliff said her brother spoke for Clark and didn’t want her taken to a hospital then for treatment.

The defense questioned Ratliff about earlier claims that Clark suffered from mental illness and seizures.

In response, Ratliff said, “She has seizures and she is a beautiful woman.”

The day of Clark’s death, Ratliff and her husband had gone to the couple’s apartment to drop off some clothes and to teach Clark how to make a chicken dish for Wallace.

Wallace, the prosecutors said, wanted his chicken cooked a certain way.

In pictures from the crime scene, the meal Clark had prepared sat on the stove untouched.

Ratliff and her husband later drove the couple to the nearby Shell station to buy Wallace a beer. The couple had already been there earlier to buy Wallace beer.

During the visit, Ratliff said she spent time teaching Clark how to prepare the chicken and then the sister and her husband left.

Suspect reacts to call from sister

After leaving the couple’s apartment that night, the sister told police she called the couple several times but got no answer.

She said Wallace returned her call a short time later.

She told police her brother sounded in good spirits, noted the couple had just had sex in the shower and indicated everything was OK there. Ratliff said she thought she heard Clark in the background during that call.

Wallace didn’t answer any other calls that night, including some that came from a number listed as his father’s number in his contact list

The next call that went out was made by Wallace.

He dialed 911 at 11:43 p.m

The judge will provide jury instructions Thursday morning before closing arguments begin in the case.