Clabon Terrel Bernaird
TACOMA -- A jury re-convicted a 28-year-old man of murder Wednesday for his role in the 2010 murder known as the "Craislist killing," where he and three others posed as a buyer for expensive rings and killed a man in a home-invasion style robbery.
Clabon Terrel Berniard was re-convicted of first-degree murder, first degree robbery, second-degree assault and first-degree burglary. Bernaird was originally convicted of the crimes in 2011, but an appellate court overturned his conviction in June 2014, citing two errors in the previous trial, the Pierce County Prosecutor said.
On April 28, 2010, Bernaird, along with Kiyoshi Higashi, Amanda Knight and Joshua Reese, entered the Edgewood home of 43-year-old James Sanders under the guise they were planning to buy some expensive diamond rings.
Hitachi pulled out a gun, tied up Sanders, his wife and their two sons. the group kicked Sanders in the head, prosecutors said, before he broke free and was shot by Higashi three times. Sanders was killed at the scene.
The defendants fled with cell phones, electronics and jewelry. They were later caught.
Higashi was sentenced to 123 years in prison, and Knight and Reese were sentenced to 71 and 100 years in prison, respectively. Berniard, who was sentenced to 123 years after the first trial, again faces the functional equivalent of life in prison.