Robert R Clarke

At the request of the Orange County Grand Jury, the district attorney's office has reopened a homicide case which sheriff's deputies had quickly closed after concluding that a former state narcotics agent accidentally killed his wife while cleaning a pistol in their San Juan Capistrano home. For the past several months, investigators have been looking into the death of Yvonne R. Clarke, who was shot once in the back of the head with a .45-caliber automatic at close range on Oct.

At the request of the Orange County Grand Jury, the district attorney's office has reopened a homicide case which sheriff's deputies had quickly closed after concluding that a former state narcotics agent accidentally killed his wife while cleaning a pistol in their San Juan Capistrano home. For the past several months, investigators have been looking into the death of Yvonne R. Clarke, who was shot once in the back of the head with a .45-caliber automatic at close range on Oct.

A 41-year-old woman died of a single gunshot to the head Sunday when a gun being cleaned by her husband accidentally discharged, a sheriff's spokesman said. The victim, Yvonne R. Clarke, was taken to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo for emergency treatment after her distraught husband, Robert R. Clarke, called 911 about 1:30 p.m. and said that his gun "had gone off," Sheriff's Department Lt. Richard Olson said. She was pronounced dead at the hospital at 2:08 p.m.

The district attorney's office has decided there was no basis for filing a murder charge against a retired state narcotics officer suspected of shooting his spouse to death in their San Juan Capistrano home in 1990. The decision not to prosecute was reached after months of investigation into allegations that Robert R. Clarke killed his wife, Yvonne, with a .45-caliber pistol in an attempt to end an unhappy marriage and collect insurance money.

Orange County sheriff's deputies were accused in a lawsuit Tuesday of having poorly investigated the fatal shooting of a San Juan Capistrano woman last year and prematurely concluding that her husband shot her accidentally. Yvonne R. Clarke, 41, was killed in her home's tiny office on Oct. 28, 1990, purportedly while Robert R. Clarke, a retired state narcotics agent, was cleaning a .45-caliber pistol a few feet away from her.