Expert: Motive in Yale Murder Not Needed

Legal Analyst Says Physical Evidence Against Suspect in Grad Student's Death May Convince Jury Beyond Reasonable Doubt

(CBS)  With word on evidence pointing to the suspect arrested in the murder of Yale graduate student Annie Le - blood traces, a text message, a security access card showing he was with the victim - the investigators' case against Raymond Clark III appears strong.

But is physical evidence sufficient for prosecutors to obtain a guilty verdict if they do not have a motive for the crime?

CBS News legal analyst Lisa Bloom said, "Absolutely."

Clark, 24, is being held in a high security Connecticut prison on $3 million bond.

One law enforcement source told CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston that police are looking into whether Le's murder grew out of a dispute where they work both. Clark is described by lab researchers as having a bad temper and had been known to explode at them.

Investigators have been questioning a number of people, including other employees at the lab where Clark and Le worked. [Clark's brother-in-law and sister also worked in the same building.]

Appearing on "The Early Show" Friday, Bloom said that prosecutors do not have to prove motive.

"It's not an element of murder or any homicide crime," she said. "Sure, they'd like to have it, because a jury is always going to be curious as to what the motive is. But when there's a mountain of physical evidence which sounds like what we're gathering here now, they certainly don't need to have motive."

More on the Annie Le investigation at CBSNews.com:
Portrait Emerges of Yale Murder Suspect
Yale Student Suffocated, Coroner Finds
"The Early Show:" Yale 'Unnerved' By Murder
Yale Student's Slaying an Inside Job?
Cops: Yale Student Killing Not Random Act

Bloom suggested that there could be many reasons behind the killing. "It could have simply been that this defendant flew into a rage over a workplace dispute," she told "Early Show" anchor Maggie Rodriguez. "It could have been a jilted would-be lover. We may never know the actual reason if he is the killer. But when we have her DNA on his boots that have his name on it, when we have his green pen at the crime scene, when we have his DNA on her body and her clothing, that would be sufficient to convict him beyond a reasonable doubt."

Investigators have described Le's death as a result of "workplace violence," but the murder is not what we traditionally think of when we think of in such cases.

"Workplace violence is ordinarily a disgruntled employee who has been fired, comes back with a gun and starts shooting, goes after a supervisor in particular," Bloom said.

She described Le's strangulation death as "a very intimate kind of murder," in which the killer's hands would have been around her neck for the two to five minutes necessary to suffocate someone. "She would have been kicking, fighting, scratching, doing anything to try to save her life. There are reports by the way that he had scratch marks on his chest and on his arms.

"It sounds like a very intimate kind of killing, a male attacking a female. It sounds to me like a jilted would-be lover kind of a case. But you never know. In the annals of crime and justice there are a lot of strange stories. It's possible this is really just over a workplace dispute."

If a report that the suspect may have had help hiding the body in the wall of the Yale Medical School building is true, Bloom agreed that that person could be a major witness for the prosecution - and he or she would also be an accessory to murder. "That is really appalling, that is surprising and unusual kind of information," she said. "Usually this is a sole killer kind of situation. Hard to fathom how somebody could help him hide the body in any way if in fact that's true."

More from the Crimesider blog on the investigation into Annie Le's murder:

Was Workplace Violence Behind Killing of Yale Student?
Yale Suspect's Wedding Web Site Goes Dark
Photos: Who is Raymond Clark III?
Photos: Raymond Clark and Fiancée in Love
Photos: Yale Holds Vigil for Slain Student
Photos: Student Found Dead on Wedding Day

[letter22]

I agree 100% with Newsrat. He was jealous of her, what a litle whimp!

[newsrat]

raymond killed annie because she was brilliant and smart w/ a great happy and financially secure future while he was a poor mice poop , floor mopper tech . it might enfuriated him to see this little vietnameese vibrant girl doing all this high tech researches and he was a mouse cage cleaner, jealousy took over rationalism , because when you swipe a card you are putting your id in the system, so if he was smart he would have known that they will get him, have fun in jail raymond wont you try to sofocate the hard core murderes there!!!!!!

[sam-kiley]

bonjour
si vraiment clark est le muertrier d'annie et qu'il avait prémédité son crime, pourquoi n'a-t-il pas assayé de faire disparaitre les preuves qui ce sont accuulées contre lui..est-il assez idiot ou fou peut etre...au revoir

[SusanStoHelit]

We don't always get to know why, unless the killer tells us. Might have been because she wore his least favorite color, might have been because she reminded him in an instant of some negative experience in his life. It really doesn't matter what the motive was - it's murder, evidence says he did it - that's it.

[incog-nito]

Um... Whatever the motive might be, the evidence shows that he killed her. You can speculate forever on the motive to satisfy your morbid curiosity, but it won't matter a bit.

[yuenchungkwong]

it was not a fight to death over how to care for mice; clark only used that as pretext to get her to meet him; I can guess his real reason; however, both sides would want to downplay that angle at the moment

I expect his lawyer to plead self defence, that they quarrelled over mice and she attacked him first, leaving scratches, and he unintentionally killed her in a rage; I also guess the DA and the girl's family would go along with the story, instead of digging up details in order to prove a darker motive

[democracy1]

Your speculation is nothing more than that--it is not based on evidence in any way. By all accounts, Le was a very quiet, mild-mannered young lady. To claim that she attacked him first flies in the face of evidence and common sense.

You should become a fiction writer and stop trying to disparage the dead with your fantasies.

[stuart-johns]

Yes it is something more. He was in charge of cleaning mouse cages in the lad that Le worked in. She got an email from him that same day from Clark complaining that she was "lazy" and that her cages were dirty.

I think Glen Beck got to this guy. "Lazy" ? That's a term the republican extremists have been throwing around all summer at all minorities and those that support Obama.

That's what these extremists groups do. They get already unstable people all worked up until some dipstick goes off.

I cannot say for certain if this had anything to do with this case but it sure fits in nicely.

[Questionews]

You must have pulled or torn a tendon with the political reach!
Do you see every event on the planet through a bias political prism??
Psychotic obsessions are not healthy.

[stuart-johns]

Psychotic obsessions are not healthy.
============

True. That's why I don't watch Fox too often.

[maistir]

This expert has forgotten the "defensive wounds" police say that Clark exhibits.

I imagine his trial defense will be that they argued over the treatment of the lab animals he was responsible for and that Le attacked him.

Will a jury buy that? I have no idea, but that is why cases should not be tried in the media. We don't quite yet have "trial by the press" in this country.

[democracy1]

The wounds Clark has have NEVER been described as "defensive" on HIS part.

[G-I_Jesus]

This is something more than a workplace dispute.