Wilmington man pleads guilty in connection to 2017 beating death

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — A man pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact of a 2017 beating death.

On the night of May 9, 2017, Austin Clarkson, 57, of Wilmington, got into a verbal altercation with Arthur Williams and Ronald Cromartie at a home on Spofford Circle in Wilmington. Cromartie lifted the victim and slammed him into the ground headfirst, breaking his neck and paralyzing him. Cromartie then loaded Clarkson into the back of his own vehicle. Cromartie and Cromartie’s girlfriend transported the victim across town and left him alone in the backseat of the car.

Several hours later, Arthur Williams removed Clarkson from the vehicle and dragged him up the front stairway at a home on South 10th Street. A neighbor of that home called for an ambulance once she realized Clarkson was critically injured. Clarkson was hospitalized at New Hanover Regional Medical Center where he lingered on life support for three weeks and then died from his injuries on June 3, 2017.

Assistant District Attorney Connie Jordan told the court that “Williams did not call 911 for Mr. Clarkson, he did not tell the paramedic who responded to the neighbor’s call on behalf of Mr. Clarkson the details of his injuries so that aid could be rendered with that information.”

In August 2019, Ronald Cromartie was found guilty by a New Hanover County jury following a one and-a-half-week trial and he is currently serving a life sentence for the first-degree murder of Clarkson.

Williams will serve 8 – 10.6 years in prison.