Wife ‘clubbed husband to death with baseball bat’ while pregnant with another man’s child

Donald Clark decided to forgive the wife who had cheated on him multiple times, and even 'rehearsed' his murder – it was a mistake that was to cost him his life

One March night in 2008, Georgia family man Donald Clark woke up with a bedsheet over his face. He pulled it down to reveal his estranged wife standing over him with an aluminium baseball bat. It was an eerie preview of the way Donald was to die, just a few months later.

Donald had married his second wife, Jennifer, in 1997. Things went well at first, with the couple welcoming two sons, born in 1998 and 2000. But it was when, out of kindness, that Donald took in Michael Yost, the troubled son of his best friend Charlie that things began to unravel.

Podcaster Annie Elise explains: “Michael had just gotten out of prison on drug charges, so things had been tense at home between him and his parents, so Donald and Jenny offered for him to stay with them. Donald obviously knew about Michael's messy past and he just wanted to help him turn his life around – that’s just who Donald was he was always trying to see the best in everybody.”

But Jennifer’s closeness to their 22-year-old house guest soon became something more. It soom became clear that the 30-year-old mum of two was involved sexually with her young lodger.

Annie says that this news wouldn’t have come as a total shock to Donald: “Apparently Jenny had cheated on him before – several times with multiple different men – and each time that Donald learned about one of these affairs, he would always choose to take her back again.”

So, clearly reluctant to break up his family Donald instead decided to order Michael to leave. Not too long after that came the night when he awoke to see his 30-year-old wife looming over him with a baseball bat.

The couple agreed to divorce a few days later, but then by October Donald had decided to give Jennifer another chance. It turned out to be a fatal decision.

In the meantime Jennifer had been living with Michael, and Donald for his part had embarked on a brief affair with the nanny he had hired to look after his children, but Annie says that Jennifer had come to regret moving out: “it seems likely that she was tired of her living situation with Michael because he couldn't provide for Jenny – not the way that Donald had.”

But a little over a month after Jennifer had move back into the family home, Donald was reported missing by family members who had been used to hearing from him every day. When questioned by police, Jennifer told them Donald might have left her for another woman, a possibility family members described as “ridiculous."

In October, investigators checked the Clark house, and noted a suspiciously clean area around the bed in Donald and Jennifer’s bedroom, even though the rest of the room was quite dusty and untidy. Forensic examination revealed bloodstains on the mattress, which Jennifer put down to her two sons playing around on the bed.

Former Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Cayce Ingalls says he found Jennifer’s excuse for the bloodstains improbable: “When was asked about the blood she stated that that was life with boys. Jennifer Clark’s story was not very believable to us.”

Suspicion can only have deepened when when Jennifer gave birth to her third child in November 2008 and it wasn’t Donald’s name she wrote on the little boy’s birth certificate, but Michael’s.

It wasn’t until a few days before Christmas that a dog walker found Donald’s wallet in woodland near his home. A search of the area turned up an aluminium baseball bat of the kind that Jennifer had previously threatened Donald with and, on Christmas Eve, Donald’s body.

Prosecutor Richard Milam recalled: “He had a plastic bag over his head. Of course his head was just ... battered. That was a clear indication that not only was he hit with a blunt object very hard, he was hit multiple times. It was an ugly mess.”

Following the discovery, both Jennifer and Michael were arrested. Each blamed the other for the murder. Michael eventually co-operated with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to felony murder, concealing the death of another, and tampering with evidence.He was sentenced to life in prison and is not eligible for parole until 2039 when he will be 53 years old.

Meanwhile, Jennifer testified to defend herself in court, claiming that at nine months pregnant she couldn’t possibly have dealt the fatal blow. During her 2011 trial she made a shocking “outburst” in court.

Donald’s daughter from a previous marriage, Nikki Nalley, told US TV documentary Snapped that her stepmother had gone berserk: “She jumped up and said that the only good thing about Michael Yost was what was between his legs. Screamed it in the middle of the court,” she said.

Found guilty on February 4, 2011 of of malice murder, two counts felony murder, concealing the death of another, tampering with evidence and two counts cruelty to children. Jennifer was sentenced to life imprisonment, plus 60 years,