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Woman charged with beating two elderly women to death is sentenced to life in prison
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Published: October 6, 2008
PITTSBORO - A woman charged with beating two elderly women to death and seriously injuring another at a retirement community was sentenced Monday to spend the rest of her life in prison for the crimes.
Barbara Clark, 42, pleaded guilty in a plea agreement that allowed her to avoid the death penalty in the December 2007 fatal beatings of Mary Corcoran, 82, and Margaret Murta, 92. Authorities said Clark committed the killings after the women confronted her about stolen and forged checks.
The women's neighbor, Rebecca Fisher, 77, also suffered injuries in the attack, but recovered.
Clark was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder and three counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. She was sentenced to life in prison plus a maximum of 183 months.
An employee of Galloway Ridge Apartments, just south of Chapel Hill, called 911 saying three residents had been beaten, officials said.
Clark told a deputy then she had been with the women discussing a money matter. She left the room and said she returned to find a man beating the women, she told authorities. A manhunt ensued for a male suspect.
Instead, it was Clark who pepper-sprayed and beat the women with a cane, investigators said.
Clark showed no emotion during most of the sentencing hearing, said Tammy Keshler, a Superior Court judicial assistant. But the woman welled up with tears when her sister read a prepared statement apologizing to the victims' families, Keshler added.
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