This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Fifty-year-old Kevin Brent Kone was no angel, his mother conceded Monday in 3rd District Court.
But Ramona Kone said her son didn't deserve to die at the hands of Jason Kyle Clark over a drug deal gone bad.
"I hope he gets life," Ramona Kone told a judge during Clark's sentencing hearing. "I don't want him killed. I want him to get life so he can suffer like I've suffered."
Judge William Barrett ordered the majority of Clark's eight felony convictions to run back-to-back, resulting in a hefty 80-years-to-life prison term that well could be a life sentence for the 39-year-old defendant.
The judge noted that during the 2007 shooting spree at a South Salt Lake home, Clark not only killed Kone, but also fired 15 bullets into two female witnesses and left them for dead.
The two women — Audra Snider-Gerdin and Debra Lindner — "suffered horribly and are still suffering horribly, and the Kone family lost someone they loved," the judge said.
Victim rights attorney Heidi Nestel said the two women decided not to appear in court Monday because they were pretty sure their words would fail to get through to Clark. Nestel said Snider-Gerdin suffers permanent nerve damage from the shooting, and Lindner had undergone femur and knee replacements.
"But the emotional trauma is most significant," Nestel told the judge.
Clark, who continues to maintain his innocence, told the court: "I feel sorry for anybody who suffered loss in this case, and I wish it had never taken place."
Prosecutor Robert Stott called Clark a narcissist and a sociopath, and claimed he does not know the meaning of remorse or responsibility. Stott said after the hearing that the 80-year minimum prison sentence "could be a record."
Stott said the death and mayhem stemmed from a $180 drug transaction.
Snider-Gerdin and Lindner paid the money to another woman for meth. But when the drugs were not delivered, Lindner and Kone went to the woman's home on April 29, 2007, and beat up the woman's adult son.
The same day, Clark, Daniel Paul Blankenship, 34, and a third man who has never been identified, showed up at Snider-Gerdin's home to retaliate. Blankenship, who pleaded guilty to robbery and was sentenced to a year in jail, testified at Clark's trial he had no idea there would be a murder.
According to trial testimony, Clark struck Snider-Gerdin in the head with the butt of a gun and the third man burned her arm with a cigarette and forced her to smoke crack.
A short time later, Lindner arrived with Kone and the intruders questioned them.
When Kone fought back, Clark shot him in the back of the head and again in the back.
Clark then shot Snider-Gerdin eight times and Lindner seven times. He also killed Snider-Gerdin's service dog Chloe, a terrier mix who helped the woman cope with psychiatric disorders.
Jurors found Clark guilty of first-degree felony aggravated murder; two counts of first-degree felony attempted aggravated murder; first-degree felony aggravated burglary; three counts of first-degree felony aggravated kidnapping; first-degree felony aggravated robbery; and cruelty to animals, a class B misdemeanor.