DATE: September 18, 2018
CASE: Lance Clemens & William Sylvester (Case #12F06425)
PROSECUTOR: Deputy District Attorney Scott Divine, Prison Crimes Unit
The Honorable Russell Hom sentenced inmates Lance Clemens and William Sylvester to life in prison without the possibility of parole. On August 14, 2018, a jury convicted Clemens and Sylvester of the first-degree murder of Ronald Richardson with the special circumstance of lying in wait. The defendants were also convicted of inmate in possession of a weapon, and both defendants admitted to prior convictions.
On October 7, 2011, inmates Lance Clemens and William Sylvester attacked fellow inmate Ronald Richardson on an exercise yard at California State Prison, Sacramento. Clemens and Sylvester were armed with inmate manufactured knives and stabbed the victim 31 times. Nineteen of the stab wounds were to the victim’s neck. The victim was pronounced dead minutes after the attack.
Clemens has three prior strike convictions for attempted robbery in 1993, assault with a deadly weapon in 1996 and assault with a deadly weapon in 2006. Sylvester has a prior 1997 strike conviction for first-degree murder.
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