Prindel Creek Farm shooter gets 10 years; victim’s supporters say it’s not enough

The 10-year prison sentence for Prindel Creek Farm shooter Everett Scott Fuller came as little surprise to those in the courtroom Thursday, Nov. 12.

Not after a jury last Friday found him guilty of first-degree manslaughter in the December 2024 shooting death of Christopher Lee Clark Jr., known to friends as “Bubba.”

Jurors convicted Fuller of the lesser charge after finding him not guilty of second-degree murder.

Under Oregon’s Measure 11, and considering Fuller’s lack of criminal history, 10 years was a standard sentence for a first-degree manslaughter conviction. But that doesn’t mean everyone agreed with the sentence.

Those closest to Clark — and Fuller himself — spoke at Thursday’s sentencing hearing.

“Ten years for a person’s life, that’s not fair,” Robert Clark, uncle to “Bubba” Clark, told the court.

Robert Clark said the three shots Fuller fired into “Bubba” Clark, who was 32 years old, in effect hit three people: not only “Bubba” Clark, but also his father, Christopher Clark Sr., and “Bubba” Clark’s young son, Christopher Clark III.

“You took the light of three men out of this world,” said Robert Clark, who sat by Christopher Clark Sr. during Thursday’s hearing and also during the trial.

Fuller is not eligible for early release under Measure 11, though he will receive credit for the approximately 22 months he’s spent in jail since the shooting.

“Bubba” Clark also had a young daughter. Deputy District Attorney Nicholas Geil read to the courtroom written statements from both of Clark’s children about their anger and loss.

“Now my Dad will not get to see us grow up,” Geil read from the statement by Christopher Clark III.

During the trial, Fuller, 57, had taken the stand. He told jurors he fired “in self-preservation, in some kind of reflex,” fearful of falling from an elevated platform after Clark grabbed his leg and tried to pull him down onto a concrete floor.

Geil, however, presented evidence that Fuller, a self-described pacifist, had reacted angrily upon learning in 2022 that his then-wife, Christine Fuller, had begun a romantic relationship with Clark.

An email from Fuller read aloud by Geil read, in part: “I don’t see any way of facing him, except down a barrel while pulling the trigger. I must have been wrong about pacifism.”

However, defense attorneys John Kolego and Willow Hillman, in statements to the jury, described Fuller and his then-wife’s relationship as complicated. Fuller himself testified during the trial that at the time of the shooting he did not believe their relationship was completely over.

Christine Fuller testified during the trial about what happened the night of the shooting on the Prindel Creek Farm property, where Clark worked as a handyman for nearby residents and Everett Fuller lived.

Christine Fuller, at that point separated from her then-husband, lived part time at the property, where some live in a house and others in a trailer or yurt.

On the night of the shooting, Dec. 26, 2024, Everett Fuller walked into the Packing Shed, a structure that served as a recreation area, where a group of four, including Christine Fuller, was playing darts.

Christine Fuller told jurors she got up to leave after Everett Fuller’s presence made her feel uncomfortable.

She was on her way out when she heard the fatal shots, she testified, and Thursday she spoke about her fear.

“In those moments, I believed we were all going to die. There’s no way to adequately describe the terror,” she told the court.

“Bubba” Clark was “a playful, gentle soul with a kind heart,” she testified. 

“We are all left trying to make sense of something that should never have happened,” Christine Fuller said.

Everett Fuller speaks

Prindel Creek Farm lies in the Five Rivers area of the Oregon Coast Range, and some local residents traveled to Eugene for Fuller’s trial, his second after a jury deadlocked in June.

In the first trial, jurors were instructed only to consider a murder charge. In this trial, the prosecutor, Geil, asked Lane County Circuit Judge Charles Zennaché to instruct jurors to consider manslaughter if they found Fuller not guilty of murder.

Asked Thursday by Zennaché if he wished to address the court, Fuller again said he fired at Clark in self-defense and also spoke about the community’s reaction to the shooting.

“Those of you who believe that I fabricated a self-defense scenario to try to get out of punishment, no such thing occurred,” Fuller told the court. He said that “even without an oath I’m a truthful person, I’m the type of man who’d just plead guilty if that were the case.”

He again recounted his testimony during the trial, in which he testified that while seated in an office chair on the elevated platform, Clark told him he was sitting in Clark’s chair. 

During the trial, Fuller said he told Clark, “It’s not your chair, son,” and then again called Clark “son” after Clark told him he would take the chair from him if Fuller called him “son” again.

At Thursday’s hearing, Fuller said: “If you know [Clark], I think you know … he’s a person that would react to that.”

In the trial’s closing arguments, Geil referred to testimony from Amy Jewett, one of the four people playing darts, that she did not see Clark grab Fuller’s leg.

“He did try to take me away from the chair,” Fuller said Thursday. “And the rest is history, and it can’t be undone.”

Fuller said he understood community members grieving and wanting to “see someone punished for it.”

“I know the community was disappointed with the outcome in the first trial, and so they banded together to stain my character as much as they could,” Fuller said.

He also said Clark “was my friend.” He said he had a dream while in jail in which Clark appeared and “he knew my heart, and I knew his, and we were friends again.”

Zennaché, the judge, after hearing Fuller speak, told him that “perhaps at some point” he will accept his role in the events of the shooting.

“The impact that your actions had that night touched very many lives, the lives of the victims and the lives of your family and friends,” Zennaché said.

“Every one of them is going to suffer, and the choice you made that night was to go down to the Packing Shed with a gun in your pocket,” Zennaché said. “You had no reason to go. You put yourself in a place to have a confrontation.”

As the judge concluded discussions with attorneys about restitution — Fuller was ordered to pay $1,240 in restitution — Fuller interrupted, “I forgive everybody involved.”

Reaction after the hearing

After Thursday’s sentencing hearing was over, Everett Fuller’s mother, Sarah Fuller, said, “I think the jury got it wrong, and I know in my heart it was self-defense, that he fired under self-defense.”

She said she believed “the incident that night was initiated by Bubba,” and also referred to medical testimony that “Bubba” Clark had a blood alcohol level of 0.139, above the legal driving limit of 0.08.

Clark was not the only person fatally shot at Prindel Creek Farm that night.

Tyler Holloway, a witness to the shooting, called 911 for help after Fuller shot Clark. But hours later, Holloway, 26, was fatally shot by police who were delayed in reaching the remote area about 25 miles east of Yachats. A wrongful death lawsuit, alleging negligence in Holloway’s death, is pending against an Oregon State Police sergeant and others.

“The 10 minutes that it happened, there are only five people who know what that was, and two of them are dead,” Sarah Fuller said. “And so it comes down to a he-said, she-said.”

Everett Fuller, in his statement to the court Thursday, referred to Jewett’s testimony, stating that perhaps she was affected by trauma and didn’t recall correctly.

“That just should paint the picture for everyone,” Jewett said after the hearing, describing Everett Fuller as going “on and on with his narcissist talking.”

Jewett, 49, disputed what Fuller said about the night of the shooting when he said she did not remember the events accurately.

“No, I’m watching what’s going on,” Jewett said.

Jewett expressed disappointment at the manslaughter conviction, calling it a “win for the state” but not for those close to Clark.

“This is not a win for us. I feel like it was kind of a big slap in the face for 10 years for two murders,” said Jewett, who was Holloway’s girlfriend. “I mean, maybe Everett didn’t directly kill Tyler as well, but his actions made the situation as it was, that Tyler was also shot and killed.”

Geil, after the hearing, cited the “complex” aspects of the circumstances of the shooting when asked why he opted to have jurors consider a manslaughter verdict if they did not find Fuller guilty of murder. 

“This was a very simple situation in the sense of what happened to the shooting. It’s more complex in the background, and that complexity led me to want to give the jury some additional things to consider,” Geil said.

Geil spoke about the harm caused to Fuller’s family as well as Clark’s family.

“I think it’s sad that he’s not able to own up to his part of that, regardless of how he feels about the justification for his actions,” Geil said.

Christine Fuller also spoke after the hearing. At various points in the trial, Everett Fuller and defense attorneys described him entering the Packing Shed out of concern for the actions of his then-wife, specifically concerns about her drinking.

“I feel like in an effort to save himself, his defense was basically to tarnish my character,” Christine Fuller said, adding that she believed “he manipulated everyone, everyone in this situation to save himself.”

While the couple’s two sons testified as defense witnesses for Everett Fuller, Christine Fuller, 51, said she visits them every week.

“We spend time together … and I think we’re going to be OK,” Christine Fuller said.

Asked if she expected to hear from Everett Fuller again, she said: “I hope not.”