SEARCY -- A man accused of killing his 2-year-old son and hiding the remains in a neighboring county pleaded innocent Tuesday as the child's mother quietly watched from a courtroom bench.
Jeffery Clifton, 43, of Searcy entered the plea through his attorney in White County Circuit Court, where he is charged with capital murder and abuse of a corpse in the beating death of Malik Drummond, whose disappearance more than a year ago captivated the attention of many in central Arkansas.
Defense attorney Ronald Davis Jr. advised the judge that he might ask to have Clifton's trial moved to Prairie County, also in the 17th Judicial Circuit, because of pretrial publicity. Trials in Prairie County are held in DeValls Bluff or Des Arc.
"There's been a tremendous amount of media coverage," Davis told reporters later.
Clifton was arrested just before midnight Dec. 1, more than a year after he and his girlfriend at the time, Lesley Marcotte, told police Malik had wandered away from their home. They said they had last seen him playing in the living room with his twin sister, Aryanna.
But on the night of Dec. 1, police said, Clifton led them to a vacant lot in tiny Auvergne, south of Newport in Jackson County, about 40 miles from Searcy. There, officers gathered what they believe to be Malik's skeletal remains and sent them to the state medical examiner's office. Positive identification was pending Tuesday.
Prosecuting Attorney Rebecca Reed McCoy said after the hearing that she would not oppose a change-of-venue motion.
"Our ultimate goal is justice and not necessarily to win a case," McCoy said. "I want a fair, impartial jury."
If her sole goal was to get a conviction, McCoy said, it would be better to have the trial in White County, where hundreds of volunteers and law-enforcement officers searched for more than a week for Malik after he was reported missing from his father's home Nov. 23, 2014.
For months, pictures of the little boy with curly hair and a sweet smile appeared in newspapers, on television newscasts, on billboards and even on video screens at some service stations as Searcy residents held out hope Malik would be found alive.
Davis said Tuesday he was concerned some searchers might end up being jurors.
Clifton, handcuffed and shackled, stood beside Davis and said little during the brief hearing other than "yes" when Judge Robert Edwards asked Clifton if he understood the charges. If convicted, Clifton faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole, Edwards said.
At one point, Clifton appeared to shake his head slightly as the charges were read to him.
A few yards behind him sat Malik's mother, Tanya Drummond. Her lips pursed, she stared forward and at one point whispered to a woman seated beside her. Later, the woman hugged Drummond.
Malik lived with his mother but had been staying at his father's home about two weeks. Clifton told police he had learned in June 2014 that he was the father of the twins, Searcy police Cpl. Steve Hernandez has said.
Clifton's next pretrial hearing is set for 11 a.m. Feb. 22.
Clifton, a former Arkansas State University basketball player, stands 6 feet 7. Malik was 3 feet tall and weighed about 40 pounds when authorities contend that Clifton killed him.
Marcotte, who is charged with felony hindering apprehension or prosecution, appeared in court Tuesday but had not hired an attorney. The judge said he would appoint a public defender to represent her.
Marcotte, 27, of Springdale is pregnant and is not in jail. After learning her baby is due Jan. 19, the judge delayed her next pretrial hearing until March 2 with a trial set for April 12.
Clifton was arrested after Marcotte told police that Clifton had fatally beaten Malik three days before they reported the boy missing. She also told police Clifton had tried to come up with a plan to frame the toddler's mother.
In an affidavit, police wrote that Marcotte told them that Clifton had fatally beaten Malik on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014, but had kept the body hidden until early Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014, when, she said, he disposed of it "but did not tell [her] where or how."
She told police Clifton went to work that Friday with the boy's body in the back seat of his pickup, an affidavit said.
Davis, the defense attorney, told reporters Tuesday that he is "confident Mr. Clifton will not be convicted of what he's charged."
Referring to Marcotte, Davis said, "Some of what she has said is not true."
Marcotte's phone number was unavailable, and she could not be reached for comment.
Davis said another person's information about the case also was not totally correct but declined to identify that person.
The Clifton family's minister, the Rev. Lamar Wright of Praise Christian Center International in Searcy, said he was in court with relatives and friends of the defendant to support the family.
"I know nothing about the case itself," Wright said.
Clifton's father declined to comment. Drummond declined to comment in the courtroom and did not return a phone message later.
State Desk on 01/06/2016