Victim of Severe Beating Dies at Erlanger Hospital

A 24 year old man, the victim of a severe beating on a houseboat July 7th at Center Hill Lake, has died from his injuries at Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga.
Dead is David Joseph Clark of White County.
Meanwhile, the man arrested in the attack, 38 year old James P. Vernon of Green Hill Road, Rock Island, is now charged with first degree murder in the case. Vernon is currently in the DeKalb County Jail under a $750,000 bond. He made his first court appearance on Thursday, July 16th and will return to court on Thursday, August 13th.
The case was investigated by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Authorities initially thought the incident occurred in White County, because it was in an area where DeKalb, White, and Warren County meet, but a GPS reading revealed it to be only a few feet inside DeKalb County.
The arrest warrant states that “On July 7th, law enforcement began an investigation regarding serious injuries to Clark, who had been discovered unconscious in a vehicle parked at Horseshoe Bend Marina. A subsequent investigation by Dan Friel of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement officers has determined that Clark had been severely beaten on the eve of July 7th on a houseboat on Center Hill Lake.”
” Eye witnesses have provided information concerning the beating of Clark by Vernon on the houseboat. The beating was accomplished by hitting the victim repeatedly in the face and head with his fist and concluded with kicks to the victim’s body. Witnesses describe the continued beating of the victim even after he was unconscious.”
” A subsequent investigation also determined the location on Center Hill Lake where the houseboat was anchored at the time of this beating to be located just inside the DeKalb County line. The victim was airlifted to Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga and remained there in the intensive care unit in a comatose state with massive head injuries” until his death this week.