East Texas Man on Death Row Loses US Supreme Court Appeal

HOUSTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has refused an appeal from a man sent to death row for torturing and drowning an East Texas woman in his bathtub and then stuffing her body into a barrel with cement mix and lime before dumping it in a ravine.

The high court, without comment Monday, declined to review arguments that 50-year-old Troy Clark had deficient legal help at his Smith County trial in 2000.

Clark was condemned for the May 1998 slaying of a former roommate, 20-year-old Christina Muse of Tyler.

Evidence showed Muse was hit with a stun gun, beaten, bound and kept in a closet before she was drowned at Clark's Tyler home. Records indicate Clark and a friend were using and selling methamphetamine and were worried she would snitch on them.