20 April 2010 :

A Fulton County jury sentenced Cleveland Clark, 52, black, to death in a murder-for-hire plot in 2000. Last week, the same jury convicted Clark of killing Sparkle Rai, 22, black, for $10,000 in a murder-for-hire scheme financed by Rai's father-in-law. Rai’s father-in-law, Chiman Rai, a native of India, wanted Rai dead because he opposed his son marrying an African-American woman. Sparkle, then 22, and Rajeeve “Ricky” Rai had been married a month when she was murdered. Clark was the last of those implicated in Rai’s death. Chiman Rai, 68, was sentenced in 2008 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for hiring Clark to kill Sparkle Rai. Prosecutors say Rai paid $10,000 to have Sparkle killed. A business acquaintance, Herbert Green, teamed up with a friend, Willie Fred Evans. Evans reputedly recruited Clark. Green and Evans agreed to testify for the prosecution in exchange for probation. Sparkle’s murder had gone unsolved for six years until witnesses came forward identifying Clark as the killer, court officials said. Judge T. Jackson Bedford has not set a sentencing date jet.