Trial to begin for man alleged to have killed mother of four

Erica D. Johnson

Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2003 | 9:30 a.m.

Prosecutors say an abusive relationship between a local mother of four and her live-in boyfriend turned deadly when the man gunned her down in front of her four children.

Clark County prosecutors Vickie Monroe and David Stanton said jurors should be allowed to hear testimony they claim proves Taiwan Allen, 29, was jealous and violent during his relationship with 31-year-old Yashoma Clemmons.

Authorities say Allen shot Clemmons twice in the head and once in the chest in front of her four children. The children, ages 15 months to 9 years old, remained in the house with the body for five days.

Allen faces a murder with use of a deadly weapon charge. Opening arguments in the trial were expected to begin today before District Judge Donald Mosley.

"We want to show that (Allen) has the propensity to exhibit violence," Stanton said.

In an evidentiary hearing on Tuesday, prosecutors tried to prove that several incidents leading up to Clemmons' April slaying show Allen had the intent and motive to kill.

During one November incident, witnesses testified, Allen assaulted Clemmons when he met her near Jones Boulevard and Ann Road to fix her flat tire.

Kathy Miller said she was sitting in her car when she saw a man later identified as Allen "grab a woman and pick her up and slam her against a brick wall."

On another occasion in February, Allen became angry with Clemmons because she danced with another man at the Luxor's Ra nightclub, Clemmons' 18-year-old sister, Neriterah Lauderdale, testified.

"He grabbed her by her hair, pulled her down to the floor," Lauderdale said.

Prosecutors said Clemmons had told friends and family members that she wanted to break up with Allen and begin dating her ex-boyfriend, who is also the father of her children.

"The defendant knew that and was upset about it," Stanton said. "The motive here is jealousy. Indeed, the defendant is a jealous man."

But Allen's attorney, Frederick Santacroce, questioned prosecutors' motives for trying to introduce the evidence.

"The only reason they're trying to get this evidence in is to prejudice the jury. That simply does not fly," he said.

Santacroce said both incidents were irrelevant to Clemmons' slaying. He noted that Clemmons did not file a police report or seek medical attention on either occasion.

"How does this stretch to an alleged act of jealousy leading to Ms. Clemmons' killing months later?" he asked.

Mosley said he would allow jurors to hear testimony regarding the incident at the nightclub because it shows jealousy as a possible motive.

Jurors will not hear evidence of the brick wall incident, Mosley said, because the incident doesn't show intent or motive.

Miller said she was driving near Jones Boulevard and Ann Road when she noticed a stalled vehicle pulled to the side of the road.

She saw a black man and woman arguing and then noticed the man slam the woman against a nearby brick wall, she said.

Miller said she immediately dialed 911. As she spoke to the operator, she noticed the woman's arm get caught in the car window or door and the man begin to drive off.

"I said, 'Oh my God, he's dragging her,' " she said.

When Miller pulled over to help the woman, whom police later identified as Clemmons, the woman's clothes were torn, her hair disheveled and she was bleeding from her skull, Miller said.

Lodia Fluellen, Clemmons' grandmother, said Clemmons was still bleeding when she arrived to take Clemmons home. Clemmons refused medical treatment and did not want to go to the hospital, she said.

During the incident at the nightclub, Lauderdale said Allen pulled Clemmons to the floor by her hair and called her a foul name.

Lauderdale said she tried to pull Allen off of her sister.

"He told me to move out the way," she said. "He tried to pull her out of the club."

Lauderdale said she called bouncers, who ultimately broke up the fight, and the couple left the nightclub together, even though Clemmons was angry.

Under cross-examination by Santacroce, Lauderdale admitted that both she and Clemmons were intoxicated at the time of the incident.

Fluellen said when she first met Allen, he appeared to have a good relationship with her daughter.

"She was happy. She thought she had a man she was happy with," she said. "Yashoma loved Taiwan. And she told me he loved her."