ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — A man received a life sentence on Tuesday for killing his girlfriend over $36 in Jennings.
Brian Clay, 47, pleaded guilty in St. Louis County Circuit Court to second-degree murder, armed criminal action, first-degree robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm in the fatal shooting of Loreal Goode on June 13, 2018.
Clay was sentenced to life plus 10 years in prison, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's Office said in a news release. He will be required to serve 85% of the sentence before being eligible for parole.
Clay admitted that he shot Goode in the head while they were sitting in a car in the parking lot of a Family Dollar on West Florissant Avenue. Clay shot Goode because she refused to drive him to the pawnshop and give him $36 to get his TV back, prosecutors said.
Goode's daughter Noel, who was 14 years old at the time, was sitting beside her and witnessed the shooting. She said in a 2018 interview with 5 On Your Side that she begged for her mother's life.
"I was like, 'Please don't do this. Can you not do this?' And he did it anyway," she said. "He killed my momma in front of her own child ... just threw her out the car and drove off."
Police said Clay took Goode's cell phone, bank card and car and drove to a casino, where he was arrested.
The prosecuting attorney's office shared excerpts from victim impact statements Goode's aunt and daughter gave at the plea hearing. Both said they wanted to know why he killed Goode.
Goode's aunt said that though she accepted Clay's apology, "It still doesn't make up for what he did."
Goode's daughter said, "You knew exactly what you were doing."
"I don't know what possessed me to do that," Clay told the court. He restated his apology and said, "I don't deserve mercy. I don't deserve forgiveness."
Clay admitted to the crimes as part of a plea agreement with county prosecutors.
"This plea agreement, which the victim's family supported, spares the victim's daughter the ordeal of reliving this horrific event before a courtroom of strangers and being confronted by the man who killed her mother before her eyes," St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell said in the release. "This cold-blooded killer will have the rest of his life in prison to reflect on why he did what he did."
