DAYTONA BEACH — Paul W. Price, now a balding, gray-haired 56-year-old man, thought back nearly four decades and testified Thursday that he still doesn’t know why he knifed to death a 17-year-old Spruce Creek High School senior.
“I stabbed her and she started screaming,” Price testified in a steady voice. “I don’t know why I stabbed her. To this day, I don’t know why I stabbed her.”
Price, who said he has found Jesus in prison, is being resentenced for his conviction of first-degree murder for killing Ellen Clancy on May 23, 1979, in the riverfront apartment she shared with her mother on South Halifax Avenue in Daytona Beach.
Price's testimony was at the S. James Foxman Justice Center before Circuit Judge Kathryn Weston who didn't render her sentence Thursday. Attorneys will have 10 days to submit additional information to the judge before she issues her sentence.
Clancy and Price had been friends. He had taught her how to ride a motorcycle.
In May 1979, Clancy was looking forward to graduation and college. Price’s life didn’t seem to be going anywhere since a motorcycle accident left him with short-term memory problems.
He had been a student at Mainland High School before the crash but ended up getting a GED. Price had walked off frustrated from some jobs, like a paint-delivery job his father got him, because he could not remember instructions.
He said he had been rejected by the Army because the motorcycle crash left him comatose for a time.
On the day of the murder, Price testified he had decided to kill himself. He was going to drive out to the beach, wade out in the water and stab himself. He took a knife from the kitchen of his Ormond Beach home.
But he said he decided to turn around on the Seabreeze Bridge and go see if Clancy could talk him out of it.
Price got to her apartment and he said she told him she was glad to see him because she needed help getting her bicycle fixed. Price said he loaded her bicycle in the car and drove her to the shop and then returned to her apartment.
“You don’t know how many times I wished I had left that knife in the car,” Price said.
He said the two started talking and she offered him a soda and cookies, which she put in the oven.
They were talking about school, Price saying he was getting a GED.
At some point during the conversation, he said he stabbed her. She screamed.
But he didn't stop.
“I took the knife and I sliced her throat,” Price said. “She bled all over the place.”
Price said he had blood all over his shirt, so he went to her room and tore a sheet up to cover himself up.
Then he drove home to Ormond Beach.
“I looked at these hands,” Price said as he raised his handcuffed hands up in court. “Her blood was on my hands.”
Price said that’s when he called Ormond Beach police and reported the crime.
Price was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced on Nov. 7, 1980, to a minimum of 25 years to life.
Price must be resentenced due to several court decisions, including a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2012 in the case of Miller v. Alabama holding that mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles violates the Eighth Amendment’s bar against cruel and unusual punishment.
The judge could sentence Price to life or a term of years. Weston could theoretically sentence him to 39 years and Price would receive credit for the nearly four decades he has already served.
A first-degree murder conviction today carries a mandatory life in prison without parole. That’s unless prosecutors seek and get the death penalty.
But the law when Price committed the crime allowed for the possibility of parole after a convict served 25 years.
Price has a tentative parole release date of June 4, 2022, according to the Florida Commission on Offender Review.
But the commission has not made any decision on whether to actually release him. That is done at a proceeding called an “effective interview” which Price has not had yet, said Kelly Corder, director of communications for the commission. The commission could reject his request for release, delay it or grant it.
Nearly four decades ago, the attorneys defending Price were Dan Warren, a former state attorney, and his daughter Christine Warren.
All these year later, the attorney arguing for Price’s release is yet another Warren: Assistant Public Defender Ray Warren, who is Dan Warren’s son.
Ray Warren questioned Price Thursday morning about his life and his time in prison.
Price testified he had found Christ while in prison and had participated in some faith-based programs, earning certificates. He testified he had also received several certificates in prison including training to work at a waste water treatment plant.
He said he had earned two bachelor’s in religious studies while in prison and was working on his master’s on the topic.
At one point, Price’s face twisted in emotion as he again professed he could not understand his actions.
Warren asked Price if there was anything else he’d like to express.
“I would like to say, I want to reach out to the Clancy family and say I’m sorry,” Price said.
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