‘Friend’ charged with murder in Thursday shooting

SKIPPERVILLE - The man who was with the teen who authorities said shot a Clio man in self-defense on Thursday was charged with murder on Friday.

Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said Antavius Mills, 21, was charged with murder, though he never made a shot.

Authorities said 32-year-old Trent Clark died from a gunshot wound to his back after incidents that started in Ozark, continued on in Clio, and ended up in Skipperville near Beaver Pond, which is on Private Road 1325, off state Highway 105.

While witness interviews were ongoing Thursday evening, here is what Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said appears to have happened:

Clark went with Mills and abducted, beat and fractured the skull of a juvenile, who was also not identified. Clark then bound the juvenile and threw him in the trunk of Clark’s vehicle with the intention to kill the juvenile later. Clark and his friend then drove to Beaver Pond. The juvenile was able to untie himself and when the trunk was open, the juvenile grabbed a handgun away from Clark and shot Clark in the back. A resident found Clark and called 911, believing he had been stabbed. The juvenile ran for help and flagged down emergency services from the highway.

Olson said both Mills and the juvenile are from the Ozark area.
No charges are expected against the juvenile, Olson said.

“What it looks like more is self-defense. For the friend, it’s like when two people go into a convenience store trying to rob it and the clerk kills one of them, the other can still stand a charge of murder,“ he said.

“This is a different situation than what we’ve had. It’s got a lot of confusion.“

Olson said more information could be released Friday.

Tracy Shirah, of Blue Springs, said she is not familiar with Clark, but that the Skipperville community was close-knit. She never expected any such events to happen there, she said.

“Of course I live a few miles up but we’re known here for baseball. That’s about it. This is very unusual,“ she said.

Olson said his department was assisted by Ozark Police Department, Houston County Sheriff’s Office dive team, and the Alabama Bureau of Investigation.