East Texas Inmate Gets Execution Date

TYLER (Staff/AP) — A death row inmate from Smith County is now due to be executed September 26. According to our news partner KETK, the 7th District Court set the date Monday for 50-year-old Troy James Clark. In 1998, Clark was condemned for the torture and drowning murder of his former roommate, Christina Muse, 20, of Tyler. Evidence showed that Clark and co-defendant Tory Gene Bush hit Muse with a stun gun, beat her, bound her, and kept her in a closet before drowning her in a bathtub. Prosecutors said the two then stuffed Muse’s body into a barrel with cement mix and lime before dumping it in a ravine. Her body was discovered five months later. Authorities say Clark and Bush feared Muse would snitch on them for using and selling methamphetamine. Bush pleaded guilty in 2000 to a murder charge and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.