TakeOff’s alleged killer is maintaining his innocence in the murder trial stemming from the rapper’s fatal shooting last year, with his legal team insisting that he was as much at risk as the late Migos star.
On Thursday (October 26), Patrick Xavier Clark appeared in court to dispute the notion that he is responsible for TakeOff’s death. He was arrested in December 2022 based on a reconstruction of the incident per video and ballistics evidence, but his lawyers are telling a different story.
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“He maintains his innocence,” defense attorney Letitia Quinones-Hollins told Rolling Stone about the tragedy in Houston. “We do believe that he has a valid self-defense claim. I don’t think they can say with any degree of certainty that it was Patrick who actually fired the shot that took TakeOff’s life.”
She added: “There was someone else who started the shooting, it was not Patrick Clark. He was in the same position that TakeOff was in, he was trying to get out of there alive as well. He didn’t have anything to do with the argument that occurred. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when people started firing weapons.”
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With Clark’s next court date scheduled for early next year, Quinones-Hollins believes that the trial will most likely begin in the second half of 2024.
In late May, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office in Texas revealed that the 34-year-old was indicted on murder charges by a grand jury.
The defendant was originally released on $1million bond at the start of the year following his arrest. As part of his bond agreement, he was made to wear an ankle monitor and remain at his parents’ home in Houston, and was also ordered to avoid contact with TakeOff’s family.
Clark’s bond was originally set at $2million before his legal team successfully negotiated to reduce it by half, claiming the figure was unconstitutional because he was unable to afford it.
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His attorneys requested a further reduction to $300,000, but their motion was denied. Judge Josh Hill ruled that previous statements made by the defendant in a jail phone call indicated he could pay a $1million bail.
Police previously announced that the deadly shootout occurred after a “lucrative” dice game outside 810 Billiards & Bowling in Houston turned violent. The Southern rapper is believed to have been an innocent bystander when things turned sour.
TakeOff was only 28 years old at the time of his passing.
