Judge, survivors get emotional at sentencing of man in deadly Lakeside diner brawl

TOMS RIVER — A pair of siblings told a judge Friday they were angry that she was about to sentence the man they hold responsible for their elderly father's death to just three years in prison.

"All we have ever asked for is for Ed Chandler to be held accountable for his acts,'' Shawn Clarke, the victim’s son, said of the former Manalapan man who punched 78-year-old Robert Clarke of Manchester in the head during an altercation at the Lakeside Diner in Lacey Township on Sept. 30, 2020.

"It's been said many times that criminal justice is just that - justice for the criminal, and not for the victims, and, until it happens to you or someone you love, you never understand the full impact of those words,'' Shawn Clarke told Superior Court Jude Kimarie Rahill before she was about to impose the three-year term contained in Chandler's plea agreement.

In a surprising exchange with the victim's family, Rahill repeated Shawn Clarke's words. Then she choked up as she shared a deeply personal experience with them.

"I want to assure you I understand the impact,'' Rahill told the victim's family. "I came to the law as a survivor of violent crime - the murder of my father who would have been 86 yesterday. Instead he was killed when he was 34 and I was six, and his brother was shot and paralyzed.''

The judge said she fully understood when Kristina Clarke, the victim's daughter, told her that her father will never be able to see his grandchildren graduate or attend their weddings.

"I know what it feels like, attending wedding after wedding after wedding when I was in my 20s,'' Rahill said. "I had to leave the room when it was the father-daughter dance.''

The judge told the family she pursued a career in law and on the bench hoping to make a difference.

"Maybe, I should have went to the Legislature where I could have changed things,'' Rahill said.

She explained that the law doesn't allow her to let a family's dissatisfaction with a plea bargain control what sentence is imposed.

"That doesn't sit that well with me personally, but I have to take my personal feelings out,'' she said.

Chandler, 57, now of Trinity, North Carolina, appeared in court in January and admitted punching Clarke once in the face during the altercation outside the diner.

Clarke fell back and struck his head. He died early the next day at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune. However, medical experts determined Clarke died as a result of a pre-existing medical condition, not from being punched.

Chandler had been scheduled to stand trial for aggravated manslaughter in January, but because of the medical reports, prosecutors said they wouldn't be able to meet their burden of proof and instead extended a plea agreement in which the defendant pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.

"I know you may disagree with the evidence, but the expert reports indicate that this wasn't a death due to a punch,'' Rahill told Clarke's family. "I understand you disagree with that. ...I only wear the robe. I don't get to make up the law.''

Chandler's attorney, Robin K. Lord, said her client believed Clarke was about to harm a female friend of his during the large altercation outside the diner because he thought he heard someone yell "knife,'' and then saw Clarke running aggressively toward the woman.

"He believed that he was coming to the aid of a female he believed was in danger,'' Lord said of her client.

Medical experts reviewed Clarke's medical history and autopsy report and concluded that he died as a result of a stroke due to a vascular malformation, and not from a punch, Lord said.

Both the judge and an assistant prosecutor rejected Lord's argument that Chandler was acting in defense of another, saying the facts did not support that.

"This was an unprovoked attack on a 78-year-old man,'' Kate Burke, an assistant Ocean County prosecutor, told the judge. "The victim was not the aggressor, nor was he acting in any such a way as being threatening toward others.''

Eyewitnesses reported that the single punch Chandler landed on Clarke "was the hardest  punch they'd ever seen,'' Burke said.

"This defendant in his rage cold-cocked an elderly man,'' Burke said.

The victim's son and daughter both said they believed the punch is what killed their father.

"Ed Chandler, your actions killed my dad,'' Kristina Clarke said. "You know it, your lawyer knows it and this entire courtroom knows it.

"Your uncontrolled rage took everything away from us,'' she said. "You landed a death blow to my dad.''

She said she couldn't understand how a former mayor was recently sentenced to five years in prison for embezzlement, and another defendant was sentenced to four years in prison for an aggravated assault that didn't involve a death, yet Chandler was only being sentenced to three years.

"Please, someone, someone make that make sense,'' she said.

Shawn Clarke was as adamant as his sister.

“There should be no doubt in anyone's mind why we're here today, and that's for one reason and one reason only, and that is because Ed Chandler killed my father,'' Shawn Clarke said. "I don't care what anyone says, that's a fact, and no amount of any convoluted, circular logic or courtroom semantics is going to change that fact.''

He said during the diner altercation, his father was sticking up for a female friend of his who "was being verbally accosted by a vulgar group of thugs.'' Those in the group called the woman 'just about every nasty thing you could imagine, and none of that sat well with my father, so he got involved and defended her.''

His father gave the group "an earful,'' Shawn Clark said.

"But that argument very quickly turned violent and then deadly when Ed Chandler showed up,'' he said.

"My Dad was a good man, a solid man, with a great sense of humor, who did not suffer fools well,'' Shawn Clarke said. "All in all, he was a decent, family-loving man whom I miss terribly every day.''

Of Chandler, he said, "I cannot forgive a man who takes no responsibility.''

Chandler did not address the court and instead had his attorney speak for him.

Lord said Chandler was fully cooperative with the police and very remorseful when he learned Clarke had died.

"He wishes he never hit him, wishes he didn't believe that he had to and wishes this never happened,'' Lord said.

The three-year sentence Rahill imposed on Chandler contains no period of parole ineligibility, under terms of the plea agreement. That means Chandler could be considered for release on parole after serving about a third of the term.

Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Lakeside diner brawl defendant gets prison for punching elderly patron