After nearly a two week trial during the late evening hours of September 25, 2024, with Hurricane Helena racing towards Western North Carolina with devastating winds and rain, Austin Amos Kennedy Byrnside, 24, from Hendersonville, NC, was found guilty by a jury of his peers of 1st Degree Murder, 1st Degree Burglary and Felony Conspiracy to Commit Common Law Robbery. Byrnside received a sentence of Life without the possibility of Parole, announced R. Andrew Murray, District Attorney for Henderson, Polk, and Transylvania Counties. Superior Court Judge Daniel Kuehnert presided over the Henderson County trial and sentenced the defendant.
According to the investigation and court trial records, on May 6, 2022, former Dixie Diner owner, Paulette Clark, had gone to sleep in her bed with her husband, Martin Clark when she was attacked in the middle of the night. The suspect, who had entered through a window, shot her in the eye with a high-powered BB rifle and hit her with a blunt object multiple times before running from the house. Ms. Clark was taken to the hospital where it was revealed she suffered numerous injuries. A medical scan revealed a BB had gone through her eye and was lodged in her brain. Ms. Clark remained in the hospital and was treated for her injuries for two days before being released. According to Dr. Elaine Chan, who testified at trial, a risk/benefit analysis was conducted by the hospital trauma team and there was no way to remove the BB without risking additional injury to the brain. Five days later, on May 13, 2022, Ms. Clark was found by her daughter Christy Owen with a high fever and foaming at the mouth in her home and was transported to the hospital where she died.
Dr. William Harrison, a pathologist, conducted an autopsy of Ms. Clark and determined she died from a cerebral abscess due to a gunshot wound to the head. He also testified that she suffered at least eleven impacts to the body and some of the impacts left a unique bruising pattern which he believed could have occurred from brass knuckle strikes. The defendant’s mother, Latasha Jones, who was staying in the house with Ms. Clark at the time, testified that she knew the defendant had recently been in possession of, and was attempting to sell, brass knuckles. Toby Pries testified that he actually saw the defendant with brass knuckles the day after the assault. Another witness, Nicole Cagle testified that a week prior to the assault she saw the defendant with a pair of silver brass knuckles. She also testified that on the same day of the assault she saw the defendant, who told her he had hurt “her” with a BB gun by shooting “her” in the eye without naming Ms. Clark. Ms. Cagle saw a cut on his hand and the defendant said it was from brass knuckles. According to the ophthalmologist, Dr. Jordan Masters, he performed surgery on Ms. Clark’s damaged eye and removed a small piece of silver metal which was distinct from a bb pellet and appeared to be a fragment of metal that ricocheted from a foreign object made in part of silver similar to the metal of the brass knuckles the defendant had in his possession.
Byrnside was interviewed by Detective Andy Anderson on May 13, 2024, and denied any involvement in the crime. Later on May 19, 2024, Det. Anderson, armed with some incriminating evidence that had been developed against Byrnside, completed a second interview where he confessed to the attack but claimed he intended on robbing and killing Marty Clark, not Ms. Clark. According to the law of transferred intent, if a defendant specifically intends to harm one person but instead mistakenly harms a different person, the legal effect is the same as if the defendant had harmed the intended victim. Byrnside also implicated his uncle, Maurice Jones Jr., in the interview. Jones had been staying at the house with his mother, Ms. Clark, the night of the attack. Jones previously pled guilty to the felony of being an Accessory after the Fact in Henderson County Superior Court on August 17, 2023. The jury found Byrnside guilty of 1st Degree Murder under both theories of Premeditation/Deliberation and the Felony Murder Rule. The Felony Murder rule is when someone murders a person with a deadly weapon while committing a felony such as Burglary or Robbery.
Assistant District Attorneys Michael Van Buren and Doug Mundy handled the prosecution and sentencing of this senseless murder. District Attorney Andrew Murray thanks the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office for their professional and thorough murder investigation.
