By Jim Mimiaga

Thomas Tom, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Ute Mountain Ute tribal member Ritche Clark, was sentenced this week to serve seven years and three months in prison.

Federal Judge Lewis Babcock sentenced Tom, also a Ute Mountain tribal member, on Nov. 2 in Denver Federal Court. Following his jail time, Tom will be on supervised release for five additional years.

In an August plea agreement, Tom, 24, changed his not-guilty plea to guilty of second degree murder and aiding and abetting for his role in the murder of Clark, who was fatally beaten some time between Feb. 24 and March 2 during a drunken altercation with three drinking partners two miles north of Towaoc on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation.

In exchange for Tom’s pleading guilty as charged, U.S. prosecutors agreed to recommend to the court that Tom be sentenced according to guidelines for a less serious crime. Tom also agreed to cooperate fully and truthfully with prosecutors in future court proceedings regarding the Clark murder.

According to court affidavits that led to grand-jury murder charges, three tribal members -- including a so-far-uncharged, male juvenile -- killed Clark in a remote wooded area at the foot of Sleeping Ute Mountain, and then returned and attempted to conceal his body.

Tom’s mother, sister and friends heard first-hand confessions of the incident from Tom, and testified to BIA criminal investigators. As recounted in an FBI affidavit, Tom’s family and friends said that Tom, the juvenile and Karla Silas were very drunk and all began to beat up on Clark, subsequently killing him with a fatal blow to the head from a log wielded by the juvenile.

"We went and did that to Ritche," Tom told his mother, according to the affidavit.

During his plea-agreement hearing, Tom stated that not everything in the plea agreement was true and that some of what his mother said was not true, court documents show.

Kelly McCabe, Tom’s court-appointed defense attorney, said yesterday that Tom expressed remorse for the crime at the sentencing hearing in Denver’s U.S. Federal Court, which was described as "very emotional."

"He maintained that he was not a participant in inflicting injuries upon Clark and talked a lot about his history of alcohol abuse. He broke down and was very sorry for what happened because the victim in the case was a friend of his. He also believed that if he had not been drunk, he could have intervened and Clark would not have been killed," McCabe said.

Karla Silas, 28, was sentenced Aug. 20 to 51 months to an Arizona prison for her role in the murder after plea-bargaining to being an accessory after the fact to second-degree murder in exchange for assisting prosecutors in future court proceedings regarding the murder. According to FBI affidavits and evidence gathered by police, Silas used her Toyota Corolla to move Clark’s body from where the murder took place to a shallow ditch approximately 1.5 miles from the crime scene.

Search and rescue teams discovered Clark’s body on March 3 in a remote location three miles north of Towaoc 100 feet off a dirt road, after tribal members alerted police to the crime.