52-year-old Paul Eugene Umsted Jr. hung his head in Brown County’s 35th District Court Wednesday afternoon as District Judge Stephen Ellis read the guilty verdict in his attempted murder trial.
The jury deliberated just over three hours before reaching the verdict. Judge Ellis set the punishment phase for Thursday afternoon at 1:30 in the district court. Umsted’s personal recognizance bond was revoked, and the Judge re-set bond at $100,000. He was remanded to the Sheriff, handcuffed, and transported to the Brown County jail.
Umsted was indicted on charges of attempted murder after beating 48-year-old James Clark with a baseball bat Feb 28, 2009, and leaving him for dead.
The assault occurred after a physical altercation between Clark and John Franklin “Tiger” Walker Jr. Walker is now serving a 25 year prison sentence in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for another unrelated aggravated assault conviction. Walker presently has another unrelated aggravated assault charge pending here in Brown County of which he faces a minimum of 25 years to 99 years or life.
Walker testified that he contacted Umsted with plans to retaliate against Clark. Walker, under condition of guaranteed immunity in the case, testified that since Clark was bigger and stronger, he would have Umsted even the score for him. In Walker’s words, Umsted “wacked” Clark with the bat and as Clark started going down, Umsted “wacked” him again and Clark lost consciousness. Walker told the court that Umstead hit Clark 15-20 times with bat, and that Clark’s apartment looked like a slaughter house as blood had splattered as far as the kitchen sink. Walker said he told Umsted to drag Clark into the bedroom and “finish him off, because dead men tell no tales”.
Umsted now faces up to 99 years in the institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, and his punishment will be determined by Judge Ellis after Umsted waived having the jury determine his punishment.
After the verdict came in, Clark said “…it’s finally over and done. All I want to do is get on that airplane and get back home to California. Life goes on”.
