In the quiet evening of March 23, 2015, the life of 16-year-old Justin Clark, a Black male from Penn Hills, was tragically cut short in a parking lot on Trefoil Court in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. A resident of the Monroe Meadows apartment complex discovered his body next to a car around 10:30 p.m. and immediately called 911. Emergency services arrived to find Justin with a gunshot wound to the upper left chest. Despite their efforts to save him, the Penn Hills High School sophomore was pronounced dead at Forbes Regional Hospital. The news of his passing sent shockwaves through his school community, who remembered him as a friend and classmate.
The investigation into Justin's death, led by Allegheny County homicide detectives, soon revealed a prearranged meeting that turned fatal. It was determined that Justin had gone to the parking lot to sell a handgun to Javon Peterson. However, waiting for him were Darnell Burks and Deonte Howell, who had conspired to rob him. As Justin exited his vehicle with the firearm in his hand, Burks fired a single shot, and he and Howell fled the scene.
Within a couple of months, the investigation led to arrests. Deonte Howell, 18, and Javon Peterson, 19, were taken into custody in May 2015. Howell faced a slew of charges, including homicide, robbery, and conspiracy, while Peterson was charged with hindering apprehension and obstruction of law for driving the suspects away from the crime scene. Later, Darnell Burks was also apprehended and charged.
The legal process that followed brought a measure of closure to Justin's grieving family. In February 2017, Javon Peterson pleaded guilty to hindering apprehension and obstruction and was sentenced to three to 23 months in jail and was paroled immediately. That same month, Darnell Burks, then 20, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder. In May 2017, he was sentenced to 14 to 28 years in prison for his role in Justin's death. Deonte Howell also pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and in September 2017 was sentenced to three and a half to 10 years in prison, followed by five years of probation. During his sentencing, Howell apologized to Justin's mother, expressing that he was not the 'devil' and had not known what was going to happen that night. Justin's mother, in her profound grief, questioned how he could have remained silent and not called for help.
