Accused shooter in killing has criminal history
WARNER ROBINS -- The man accused of shooting a Warner Robins woman in an alleged murder-for-hire plot has a criminal history in other states, as well as Georgia.
Richard Grant Sybert, 29, of Warner Robins, is being held without bond in a pretrial detention facility in Jacksonville, Fla., where he is accused of sexually assaulting and robbing a woman from an escort service there in March.
He faces charges of sexual battery, false imprisonment, armed robbery and failure to register as a sexual offender, according to Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office records. His sexual offender status is based on a Michigan crime.
Sybert faces extradition to Houston County on charges of felony murder and burglary in the Feb. 8 slaying of Joni Clements, a 47-year-old clinical nurse for the 78th Medical Operations Squadron at Robins Air Force Base.
The victim’s husband, James “Eddy” Clements, 55, a sheet metal mechanic for the 559th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Robins, is accused of hiring Sybert to kill his wife. Sybert’s father, Robert Sybert, 53, who cleaned the Clements’ family pool, is accused of being his son’s getaway driver and providing the handgun used in the slaying.
George Williams, one of the Warner Robins attorneys representing Clements, doesn’t believe the prosecution has a case, and Clements’ family is standing behind him and believes he is innocent. Russell Walker, a Perry attorney representing Robert Sybert, has raised issues about his client’s culpability, arguing he’s physically, mentally and developmentally disabled and was victimized by his son.
Richard Grant Sybert was warned March 7 by the Jacksonville Beach Police Department of the legal requirement to register in Florida as a sexual offender, according to the Jacksonville sheriff’s report. He told police he had been temporarily staying at a Manship Drive residence in Jacksonville.
He is accused of sexually assaulting a woman from the Aana Lee Escort Service on March 13. The woman came to the Manship Drive residence in response to a call from a male requesting escort services, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office arrest and booking report.
According to the report:
The woman told authorities Sybert asked her, “How much money do I need to give you?”
Sybert pulled a knife from underneath his bedroom pillow and told her, “How about this, I don’t have any money.”
He next asked her to remove her clothes, and she hesitated. He then placed his hand over the knife without grabbing it, and she complied with his demands.
Sybert is accused of taking $40 from the woman’s purse after the alleged sexual assault.
The woman later identified Sybert “without hesitation” from a photographic lineup developed by the investigating officer, who also learned Sybert was a registered sexual offender based on a Michigan crime, the report stated.
Sybert pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal sexual conduct in the fourth-degree that included force or coercion and to misdemeanor indecent exposure committed Nov. 10, 2003, according to his Michigan criminal history.
The Jan. 8, 2004, conviction in the 56th Judicial Circuit Court in Eaton County, Mich., placed Sybert on the Michigan Public Sex Offender Registry.
His Michigan criminal history also included a 2008 felony conviction for failing to register as a sexual offender.
An arrest warrant was issued March 18 on the charge of failing to register as a sexual offender in Florida, and Sybert was arrested March 19 at a Commonwealth Avenue home in Jacksonville, according to the Jacksonville sheriff’s report. Warner Robins police subsequently placed a hold on Sybert March 19 on the murder and burglary charges.
Sybert fled to Florida after allegedly killing Joni Clements in February, Houston County District Attorney George Hartwig said at a hearing Thursday for her husband at which bond was denied. Hartwig said Friday he intends to ask Florida authorities to allow Sybert to be prosecuted first in Houston County on the murder charge.
Erin Wolfson, an assistant state attorney in Duval County prosecuting the Florida case, said she is aware of the Georgia case, but she is not in a position to talk about either case.
Sybert previously was imprisoned in Georgia from April 1, 1999, to March 25, 2002, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections’ website.
His convictions include a theft by taking committed in Bibb County on Aug. 13, 1998, and obstruction of a law enforcement officer, escape and theft by taking committed on Dec. 16, 1998, in Taylor County, according to the website.
In Houston County, Sybert pleaded guilty Nov. 9, 1998, to theft of an automobile committed on Sept. 14, 1998, and was sentenced to seven years probation to include 180 days in the McEver Probation Detention Center in Perry, according to Houston County court records.
To contact writer Becky Purser, call 256-9559.
This story was originally published April 4, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Accused shooter in killing has criminal history."