On January 27, 2015, Donnell Jamar Clark, a 26-year-old Black/African American man from Wilmington, Delaware, was outside his home in the 900 block of East 17th Street when an acquaintance, RhiShawn McNeil, approached him. At about 4:00 p.m., McNeil opened fire, striking Clark several times. Responding Wilmington police officers found Clark seriously wounded, with gunshot injuries to his upper torso and abdominal area.
He was rushed by ambulance to Christiana Hospital, but his injuries proved fatal and he was pronounced dead.
The investigation moved quickly. Detectives with Wilmington Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division and Homicide Unit developed McNeil as a suspect and obtained a search warrant for a residence in the 600 block of East 11th Street. Police executed the warrant and took McNeil into custody without incident. He was transported to police headquarters, where investigators initially charged him with first-degree murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He was ordered held without bail at the Howard R. Young Correctional Institution.
As the prosecution continued, the case ultimately ended with a negotiated guilty plea rather than a trial. On May 6, 2016, McNeil pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of second-degree murder and to possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Delaware prosecutors described Clark and McNeil as acquaintances and said Clark had been working outside his residence when McNeil approached and shot him multiple times. The publicly available court record does not identify a specific motive for the killing.
McNeil ultimately received a total of 25 years of unsuspended prison time. For second-degree murder, the Superior Court imposed 30 years at Level V incarceration, suspended after 22 years for subsequent levels of probation. The firearm conviction carried an additional mandatory three-year Level V prison term. Years later, McNeil sought to challenge his sentence through motions for correction of an illegal sentence and postconviction relief. In October 2025, the Delaware Superior Court rejected those efforts, finding the sentence lawful and within the statutory limits and dismissing the postconviction motion as untimely. The conviction and sentence therefore remained in place.
