Accused murder-for-hire shooter set for extradition

WARNER ROBINS -- The accused shooter in an alleged murder-for-hire in Warner Robins is expected to be extradited to Houston County within the next 60 days, authorities said.

Richard Grant Sybert, 30, of Warner Robins, is accused of gunning down Joni Clements for the promise of $1,000, a car and a date with a stripper from the victim’s husband in exchange for her death.

District Attorney George Hartwig said Thursday that the process has started for Sybert’s extradition, which Hartwig said will be handled by the Houston County Sheriff’s Office. Sybert is expected to waive extradition.

Houston County sheriff’s Capt. Alan Everidge, who heads the warrant and booking division, said the paperwork has been initiated following Sybert’s plea and sentencing to charges in an unrelated sexual assault in Florida, where Sybert allegedly fled after the slaying.

Everidge said he expects Sybert will be processed through the Florida Department of Corrections before he is released to the custody of Georgia authorities to face felony murder and burglary charges here in the Feb. 8 killing.

Clements, a clinical nurse for the 78th Medical Operations Squadron at Robins Air Force Base, was shot multiple times in the upper torso in the master bedroom of her 309 Westwood Drive home in Warner Robins.

Her 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.

Robert Sybert, 53, who cleaned the Clementses’ family pool, is accused of being his son’s getaway driver and providing the handgun used in the slaying. Clements and Robert Sybert are also charged with felony murder and burglary under the state’s party-to-a-crime statute.

Tuesday, Richard Sybert was sentenced in Duval County, Fla., to 20 years in prison for the sexual assault, armed robbery and false imprisonment of a woman from a Jacksonville, Fla., escort service March 13.

Sybert was sentenced after being found guilty of sexual battery and armed robbery in that case by a judge in Duval County, according to Duval County Clerk of the Circuit Court’s website. Also, Sybert pleaded guilty to false imprisonment in that case.

He also pleaded guilty to an attempted sexual battery in another incident involving an employee of an escort service also in March, said Erin Wolfson, an assistant state attorney in Duval County who prosecuted the Florida cases.

In addition, Sybert pleaded guilty to failure to register as a sexual offender in Florida. The sentences for all of those Florida convictions were run concurrently and merged into the 20-year sentence for the sexual battery, Wolfson said.

Wolfson said the state agreed to the pleas in the Florida cases because Sybert is facing the felony murder and burglary charges in Georgia, and Florida authorities wanted to release him as quickly as possible to Georgia authorities to face prosecution here.

Matt Bisbee, a spokesman for the public defender’s office that includes Duval County, said that the assistant public defender who represented Sybert preferred to decline comment.

A Jan. 8, 2004, misdemeanor criminal sexual conduct conviction in the 56th Judicial Circuit Court in Eaton County, Mich., placed Sybert on the Michigan Public Sex Offender Registry. 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.

His Michigan criminal history also included a 2008 felony conviction for failing to register as a sexual offender.

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 May 27, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Accused murder-for-hire shooter set for extradition."