On the morning of May 31, 1990, the quiet of a Tennessee neighborhood was shattered by a grim discovery. The wife of 49-year-old Michael Lloyd Rector, a Special Agent for the Tennessee Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division, found her husband's body in the driveway of their home. An autopsy would later reveal he had been shot five times with a. 9 mm pistol. The preceding night, between 12:30 a.m.
and 1:00 a.m., neighbors had heard a series of loud noises, which at least one person believed to be gunshots.
The investigation into the death of the U.S. Navy veteran quickly focused on a familiar face: his own brother-in-law, Roy Lee Clark. Evidence gathered by the FBI indicated that Rector had become a confidential informant, providing information about Clark's involvement in automobile thefts and the operation of a 'chop shop.' Rector had been participating in an FBI sting operation aimed at his brother-in-law's criminal enterprise. The motive for the murder appeared to be Clark's desire to silence Rector and prevent him from further cooperating with law enforcement and eventually testifying against him.
Within hours of the discovery of Rector's body, the FBI arrested Roy Lee Clark, who was 48 years old at the time. A crucial piece of evidence found at the scene was a cigar butt that investigators later determined bore Clark's teeth marks. The case against Clark was built on a foundation of extensive evidence of his car theft activities, which served to establish a strong motive for the murder. To bolster their case, the government utilized testimony from inmate informants and even placed two undercover FBI agents, posing as mobsters, in cells near Clark in an attempt to gather more information.
Roy Lee Clark was ultimately convicted for the murder of his brother-in-law, Michael Lloyd Rector. The court found that he had killed Rector to obstruct justice. For his crime, Clark was sentenced to life in prison. His subsequent appeal of the conviction, which challenged the evidence and procedural aspects of his trial, was denied, and the judgment of the district court was affirmed.
