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Navajo Nation man pleads guilty to second-degree murder in 2021 fatal stabbing
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A 46-year-old man pleaded guilty last week in federal court to second-degree murder in the 2021 stabbing death of a member of the Navajo Nation in the parking lot of a Shiprock convenience store, court records show.
Marc Clark, also a member of the Navajo Nation, faces 23 to 27 years in prison under terms of his plea agreement, according to the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico. No sentencing hearing has been scheduled.
Federal court records identify the victim only as John Doe and do not indicate his age. Clark entered the plea Aug. 3 before Magistrate Judge B. Paul Briones in U.S District Court in Albuquerque.
On Oct. 24, 2021, Clark drove with three others, including John Doe, to the convenience store so that John Doe could fill up a gas can, according to the plea agreement. While John Doe was inside the store, Clark began arguing with a woman in the vehicle.
After John Doe emerged from the store, Clark drew a knife from his pocket and stabbed John Doe in the neck “suddenly and without warning” and “without provocation,” Clark admitted in the plea agreement.
Occupants of the car drove John Doe to the Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock, where he died, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
Navajo Police arrested Clark in a nearby laundromat, it said.
