A 31-year-old man was sentenced Thursday to 50 years to life in prison for fatally shooting a 21-year-old neighbor over a dispute about smoking in Brea.
Sidney Bararchie Clarke of Brea was convicted Nov. 12 of first-degree murder with a sentencing enhancement for the discharge of a firearm causing death in the killing of Logan Kahmar.
Clarke’s attorney, Tom Nocella, argued for a 25 years to life sentence based on Clarke’s history of mental illness. He has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, anxiety and somatic symptom disorder, Nocella said.
Somatic symptom disorder is a mental health condition characterized by an excessive focus on physical symptoms — such as pain or shortness of breath — that cause significant distress or impairment.
Clarke has no prior criminal history, Nocella added.
Nocella argued the two had “no prior animosity.”
Deputy District Attorney Nick Thomo argued for the maximum punishment, which Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Menninger handed down. Clarke has 834 days credit behind bars.
Thomo said in a sentencing brief that the “brutal, callous nature” of the killing “demands” the maximum punishment.
The two “had been arguing about the victim smoking on his patio for months,” Thomo said. “It is unconscionable that something as minor and innocuous as smoking drove the defendant to commit the heinous crime upon victim.”
Thomo pointed out that Clarke retrieved the gun from his safe and made sure it was loaded before walking downstairs to his neighbor’s apartment and then shooting him.
Kahmar managed to dial 911, a call jurors heard in the trial. “Seeing and hearing this, defendant then decided to reload” and shot him again, Thomo said.
Police were called to the Raintree Apartments at 650 N. Tamarack Ave., one block south of Central Avenue, at about 7:30 p.m. Aug. 30, 2023, where Kahmar was found dead on his patio with 17 gunshot wounds, according to prosecutors.
Kahmar’s infant daughter was found alone inside the apartment, prosecutors added.
Clarke lived in the upstairs apartment above the victim’s. Detectives found paperwork for a gun in the safe in the defendant’s apartment and the next day investigators caught up to Clarke in his Jeep Grand Cherokee in the parking lot of a coffee shop in Los Angeles, prosecutors said.
Police found the murder weapon in the defendant’s backpack, they said.
Clarke told investigators that he had been having issues with Kahmar, accusing him of “drinking, yelling racial epithets, and being a nuisance in the community,” according to prosecutors.
Clarke also complained about Kahmar’s frequent smoking and said he had a “verbal confrontation” with the victim just before he was shot.