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Yale Student Annie Le's Killer Gets 44 Years

By Cynthia Hsu, Esq. on June 03, 2011 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Raymond Clark III, 26, has received a 44-year sentence without eligibility for parole for the killing of Yale student Annie Le.

Le, 24, was murdered in 2009. A doctoral pharmacology student, her body was found upside down behind a wall at the research lab on the Yale campus where she worked. Her body was found the same day that she was to be married.

Clark was an animal research technician at the lab. He cleaned the mouse cages where Annie Le and other doctoral pharmacology students performed research on enzymes that could have impact on cancer treatments, diabetes, and muscular dystrophy, according to the AP.

Clark had pled guilty to murder and sexual assault last March. The sexual assault plea was entered under Connecticut's Alford doctrine. This state-specific doctrine essentially means that the defendant does not agree to the facts, but agrees that the state has enough evidence to garner a conviction, reports KSBW-TV.

Some of the evidence against Clark included evidence that he tried to clean up the crime scene and attempted to retrieve evidence from behind the wall where Annie Le's body was hidden, reports KSBW-TV. There was also evidence of Clark's semen and a pen found behind the wall with both the Le and Clark's DNA.

Clark, who was not a Yale student, spoke publicly for the first time after the judge handed down the sentence. He apologized for his actions, and offered no explanation for Annie Le's murder, reports UPI.

Clark's 44-year sentence also includes a concurrent 20-year sentence for the sexual assault, reports the AP. The concurrent sentence means that the sexual assault sentence will be running at the same time as the murder sentence.

In some criminal proceedings, consecutive (or cumulative) sentences will be levied against defendants. Consecutive sentences will commence and add on to the prior sentence when the prior sentence expires. Usually, consecutive sentencing will be made when defendants are convicted of distinct crimes or different counts.

Raymond Clark's 44-year sentence for murdering Yale student Annie Le means he will be in his late 60s before he will be eligible to be released from prison.

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