Fresno murderer among Death Row convicts to apply for pandemic jobless benefits, DA says

A former Fresno man on Death Row in San Quentin State Prison is one of possibly hundreds of murderers, rapists and other violent inmates who have filed, and often received, unemployment claims with the state since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert revealed Tuesday.

Royal Clark Jr. was convicted of strangling Laurie Farkas, 14, and assaulting her friend Angie Higgins, 15, in a brutal attack at Lost Lake in 1991. He was sentenced to death for the crime and later convicted of slaying Danielle Marie Haddon in Long Beach in 1989, before he moved to Fresno.

At a Sacramento news conference Tuesday, Schubert called the widespread abuse of bogus claims by inmates in state prisons and jails possibly the biggest fraud committed against the state’s taxpayers “in California history” and that losses could reach into the billions of dollars. Investigators believe the abuse of the system includes widespread identity theft perpetrated through the theft of Social Security numbers.

The scam also reached into county jails. Fresno County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Tony Botti said Tuesday that investigators are looking into cases here.

Specifics on the claim filed by Clark as part of the massive scam were not immediately available.

During his trial in Fresno, Clark claimed he was mentally ill when he drove the two Fresno High students to Lost Lake Park in January 1991 to look for a party, and killed Laurie Farkas because she would not have sex with him. He was convicted of the Long Beach murder after the development of DNA technology.