A Tyler Man On Death Row Loses Federal Appeal

HOUSTON (AP/STAFF) — A man sent to death row for torturing and drowning an Smith County woman in his bathtub and then stuffing her body into a barrel and dumping it has lost a federal court appeal. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Friday arguments that Troy Clark, 49, should be allowed to reopen his appeals so he can show his attorneys at his 2000 trial in Smith County were deficient. Clark was condemned for the May 1998 slaying of a former roommate, Christina Muse, 20, of Tyler.

Evidence showed Muse was hit with a stun gun, beaten, bound and kept in a closet. Prosecutors said Clark, with the help of his girlfriend, beat the woman with a board before she was drowned in a bathtub at Clark’s Tyler home. Records indicate Clark and a friend were using and selling methamphetamine and worried Muse would snitch on them.