Published: July 02, 2008 09:05 am      

NEW – Dauphin County jury headed home last night

BEDFORD — Plans to take the Dauphin County jury in the kidnapping and murder case against Joseph W. Clark back to the Harrisburg area this morning were moved up.

The seven men and five women left the Bedford Township motel where they had been staying at around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.

It was less than three hours after they rejected the death penalty and determined that Clark’s life should be spared.

Clark, 49, of Everett was convicted by the same jury Monday of first degree murder, kidnapping, arson, unlawful restraint and two counts each of aggravated assault and simple assault.

On April 30, 2000, he kidnapped Holly Christine Notestine, 25, from her Clearville home and murdered her,

Her skeletal remains, boots, bra and sweat shirt were found in a remote area 1.8 miles from Clark’s home on March 27, 2004.

Clark, a suspect from the start, was arrested April 30, 2005, and has spent the past three years in the Bedford County Jail awaiting trial.

In January and February a jury from Butler County was brought to Bedford to hear the case. It ended in a mistrial after six days of deliberations when the jury was unable to reach a verdict.

In this second trial the jury deliberated 12 hours over the week-end and reached a verdict Monday.

On Tuesday plans by Judge Daniel Howsare were to end deliberations in the death penalty phase at 7:15 p.m. so the jury could get to a restaurant for dinner.

They were to be resumed today. However, the knock on the door leading from the jury deliberation room to the courtroom came at 7 p.m.