INNOCENT: San Angelo Man Found Not Guilty After Spending Nearly 2 Years in Jail

SAN ANGELO, TX – A San Angelo man accused of aggravated robbery was acquitted last Thursday by a Tom Green County Jury.

According to court documents, on Feb. 10, a Tom Green County Jury found Matthew Clark, 47, not guilty of aggravated robbery.

Clark was originally arrested in Aug. 2020 after the San Angelo Police Department accused him and two others of robbing a house on the 400 block of E. 19th st. armed with a pistol, knife, and screwdriver. Since his original arrest Clark has been held in the Tom Green County Detention Facility on a $150,000 bond.

A key factor that led to the not guilty verdict was how evidence was handled. During the trial it was told to the jury by multiple SAPD officers that the robbery was seen on video. The only problem was the video was never collected by SAPD.

This gave an opportunity for Clark's defense attorney, Shawntell McKillop, to question if her clients rights were violated. 

"The police have an obligation “to preserve evidence ‘to that class of cases where the interests of justice most clearly require it, i.e., those cases in which the police themselves by their conduct indicate that the evidence could form a basis for exonerating the defendant," stated McKillop in a motion to the judge and jury.

The trial lasted three days and the jury deliberated for an hour and a half before unanimously finding Clark not guilty. Now after 553 days in the Tom Green County Detention Facility, Clark is once again a free man. In 2015 the average cost to house an inmate for one year is around $22,000.