Retired teacher, 92, was killed in 2017. A trial is underway for one of the accused killers

TAVARES — It was the final insult.

The ranch-style home that 92-year-old Rubye James kept so neat and clean in Leesburg was ransacked and smeared with blood. Even a bottle of orange juice inside the refrigerator and a cooking pot on the stove were stained.

Jurors on Monday looked at dozens of photos of the crime scene, her body and her bloody clothing marked by multiple stab wounds.

No doubt the 12 jurors and alternates wanted to look away, but their duty is clear. They must decide if Joshua McClellan, who was 19 at the time, is guilty and, if so, whether he should be executed for the crime against the defenseless, beloved retired teacher in a crime that shocked the community.

Co-defendant Krystopher Laws, who was 21 at the time, pleaded guilty in 2020 in exchange for a life prison sentence. Before entering his plea, he identified McClellan as his partner. McClellan was well known to James. He had done yard work for her and she sometimes fed him.

Background of the case

The horror began unfolding on the morning of Feb. 8, 2017 when three concerned friends gathered at James’ home at 2202 Edgewood Road. Her glasses and a single house slipper were on the porch and a potted plant was turned over.

“Ms. Rubye was very particular about her plants,” Carlean Crawford testified.

Runette Fulmore talked to James, an early riser, every day. “If I had not talked to her, I would look up and see her at my door.”

She called the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and asked for a well-being check.

There were bars on the front and back doors, so the fire department had to pry the set off the back door to gain entry.  Once the door was opened, she went inside with a deputy. One of the first things she saw was that the bed was not made. “She made the bed as soon as her feet hit the floor,” Fulmore said.

The next thing she knew, a deputy was ordering everyone out of the house. It was no longer a home, but a crime scene.

Jurors learn more about the case

Jurors looked on silently at photos of dried pools of blood, drippings, smears and drag marks throughout the house. The trail ended in the garage, where there was blood on a shovel, edger and carpeting. There were also bloody shoe print impressions.

James' white 2016 Hyundai Veloster was missing. It would be found that evening, smeared with blood on the outside, parked at Snow Place Apartments about five miles away. It was where McClellan lived.

Former sheriff’s K-9 handler Kirk Dumond said he was called to the house and then the car with his cadaver dog named “Nuts.”

He saw grass hanging from beneath the car, the same kind of grass that was growing beside a nearby dirt road.

The dog “alerted” on the car by sitting down and staring at the car. The two then headed down the road and followed tire tracks leading toward a wooded area.

The dog alerted on one sock, then another, They stopped when Dumond realized he was standing on the shallow grave that had been covered with uprooted ferns and other vegetation.

The car was towed to an evidence garage, where investigators found a red firefighter’s knife on the console with her blood on it, an opened pocket Bible on the dashboard, and a larger Bible in the back seat. Contrary to early reports, no blood was found on the Bibles.

However, there was one important clue on the floorboard. There was a small bandage there, the same type that was found on the bathroom sink of the home. Most importantly, the blood matched McClellan’s, prosecutors say.

Earlier coverage: 'The right thing to do'

McClellan denied killing James, but Laws was talkative when confronted by investigators two days later.

“It was the right thing to do,” Laws said, according to a recording of his interview with law enforcement.

“Killing her was the right thing to do?” Detective Levi Burns asked.

“No,” he said, “robbing her was the right thing to do.”

The total take was $70, which they immediately spent on marijuana, he said.

The trial is expected to last several days. If McClellan is found guilty of first-degree murder, mental health experts for both the state and the defense will testify in the penalty phase.

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Murder trial starts in Tavares. Man accused of killing Rubye James