Raymond Clark III, the 24-year-old lab technician accused of strangling Yale pharmacology student Annie Le to death last fall, pled not guilty yesterday to two charges: murder and felony murder. The court hit Clark with the latter, surprise charge–which would allow the jury to convict even if the killing was only an accident, committed during another felony (rape, kidnapping, etc.)–at the beginning of Tuesday’s hearing.

The double not-guilty plea comes in the wake of mounting evidence against the Middletown resident, and gruesome details recently revealed in an 80 page arrest-warrant. The document detailed suspicious behavior on the part of Clark–including attempts to hide and clean bloody evidence–gore-stained articles of clothing (which he changed three times on the day of the murder), biological evidence in his car and home, scratches and cuts on his skin–indicating a struggle–and overuse of his keycard in Le’s work area. From the affidavit:

“While turning towards Officer Wood, Clark moved [a bloodstained] box of wipes from the corner to the far right corner and turned the box so that the blood splatter was facing to the right hand side of the cart away from plain sight.” Clark moved the box, then “leaned up against the cart and made small talk” with Wood. [New Haven Independent]

Clark is currently passing his time in maximum security prison on $3 million bail. He receives regular visits from his former fiancee–also a lab technician–and parents. A jailer described Clark as:

“nervous,” “very respectful,” and asking “many questions.”

He is no longer on suicide watch, and his fellow inmates have reportedly nicknamed him “Ray Ray.” He is allowed recreation time, and, according to his defenders, Beth Merkin and Joe Lopez, his mood is “good.”

Annie Le, Yale GRD ‘13, was the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, grew up in tiny Placerville, California, and was her high school’s valedictorian. Friends described her as perpetually energetic, academically and intellectually impassioned, and very, very in love. At the time of her murder, she was preparing to marry her fiance, Columbia grad student and U of Rochester sweetheart Jonathan Widawsky. Her brother, Chris Le, wrote:

“She may be small, but she be fierce. Stuck in a 4′ 11″ frame, she had a 7′ tall personality. She will always live on through us.”

Le was last seen alive on security camera, entering 10 Amistad Hall at 10am on September 8, 2009. On her planned wedding day, September 13, investigators discovered her body, stuffed inside a wall in the building’s basement. She was 24 years old.

After the jump, read excerpts from the Clark case’s official affidavit, detailing the crime.

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Pop quiz! Stephen P. Morgan and Stephen L. Morgan: Can you spot the difference?

The former is a 29-year-old, anti-semitic, wig-wearing, gun-toting, “okay to kill Jews and go on a killing spree”-journaling skeez, charged with the recent murder of former classmate Johanna Justin-Jinich. The latter is a 38-year-old sociology professor, Harvard grad and Rhodes Scholar, who heads up Cornell’s Center for the Study of Inequality. Stumped? Here’s a hint: they look about as similar as Penn and Teller.

If you’re still confused, don’t worry; Wesleyan administrators were also left head-scratching. They circulated the Cornell professor’s photo—rather than the student’s—to police officers, employees, undergraduates and, oh, the global newsmedia, in connection with the murder. Doh!

Here’s the amiable academic formerly known as madman murder-suspect:

I said to my wife when it happened, “We have the same name, but thank God I don’t look like him.” I knew the whole thing was going on because it was such a big story, but to see myself inserted directly into it was very shocking.

All jokes aside, this unequivocally sucks. Remember Yale’s similar snafu in the aftermath of the still unsolved Susanne Jovin murder? The Bulldogs leaked the name of her obviously-innocent thesis advisor to the media, and started rumors that the pair were having an affair; it ruined his career. So much for learning from your mistakes, higher education. Well, at least Wesleyan has the dignity to apologize—to state publicly that they made a mistake, and confirm that Prof. Morgan is not, in fact, a homicidal maniac. Right…?

All they’ve said is they regret this happened to me, which sounded to me like something written by a lawyer.

Good lord. Pic comparisons, textbook academic arrogance, litigation and Roger Rabbit after the jump.

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Police have recently identified 24-year-old Raymond Clark as a suspect in the Anne Le murder at Yale. Cops arrived at his apartment in Middletown, Connecticut but did not arrest him, claiming to only have a “person of interest.” A lab technician at the lab where Le worked, Clark displayed visible chest marks and also failed a polygraph test. But according to a source close to Clark and his family:

Of course, he had scratches on his arm–from his cat. I know he didn’t do it, but I can’t understand how anybody would do that in the first place and put her in the wall like that. And they would have had to do it at night because certainly nobody could have done it during the day when everybody was looking.

Clark hadn’t been seen since last Thursday following the Tuesday disappearance of Le. Le’s body was found this weekend in a chute in the basement of the pharmacology research facility on 10 Amistad Street. Yale has since increased security in the surrounding area following the murder. Le’s fiancé Jonathan Widawsky, who had been cleared of being a suspect, has been assisting police with their investigation.