Bond set for suspected shooter in deadly fight

COEUR d’ALENE — A judge set bond at $1 million for a 33-year-old Coeur d’Alene man who is charged with first degree murder in the fatal shooting early Sunday of Michael C. “Topher” Clark in the parking lot of the Tipsy Pine Bar in Hayden.

Scott M. White of Coeur d’Alene is accused of shooting Clark, 45, of Hayden around 1:30 a.m. with a handgun he carried in a waistband holster.

Known to his friends as “Topher,” Clark was famous for his part in a lucrative marijuana smuggling enterprise that was the focus of a Rolling Stone article and the 2014 movie “Kid Cannabis.”

Clark was transported to Kootenai Health, where he died an hour after being shot several times at close range, according to reports.

At his first court appearance Monday, White was without an attorney, and chose not to address bond. Deputy prosecutor Jennifer Fuhs asked for a high bail because of the egregious nature of the crime, the number of shots fired and White’s history of alcohol abuse.

The Sunday morning incident started with an altercation inside the bar at 8166 N. Government Way in which White punched Clark in the face, Fuhs said. Clark followed White outside, where another fight ensued. That is when White, who has a concealed weapons permit, shot an unarmed Clark.

“He continued to shoot him,” Fuhs said. “Then shot at him some more.”

The nature of the crime was “quite violent and senseless,” Fuhs said.

White, whose criminal record includes two DUIs and driving without privileges, had a blood alcohol content of .228 almost two hours after the shooting, according to a deputy’s report.

An autopsy for Clark is scheduled today.

Witnesses said that White and a woman entered the Tipsy Pine where Clark was a regular patron, and that White loudly sang along to music he played on the jukebox. White’s bar tab included three whiskey cokes and three vodka drinks. He told deputies he drank several beers before going to the bar.

Witnesses said Clark asked White several times, “What’s your problem?” and advised him to go home. Then White allegedly punched Clark in the face “breaking skin,” according to a deputy’s report. Clark slapped White with an open hand before the fight was broken up.

Bar employees trespassed White and his girlfriend, but when they were outside, White’s girlfriend, Candace Ronquillo, realized White had left his jacket inside the bar. She went to retrieve it and returned back outside to see White and Clark fighting on the ground. White stood up and shot Clark, who was still on the ground.

Ronquillo said she thought she heard just one shot, but White, in an interview with detectives said his firearms training taught him to shoot until the threat was “stopped.”

He told detectives he always carries a concealed handgun and likely fired all of the rounds from his firearm.

When he realized what had happened, Scott Roberts, a man who sat at the bar with Clark before the fight, retrieved a handgun from his pickup truck and pointed it at White as he waited for police to arrive. Another man, Geoffrey Wallace, kneeled on the ground attempting to stem the blood coming from Clark’s abdomen.

Wallace was a longtime acquaintance of Clark’s who spent 16 months in federal prison after being sentenced in 2004 for being part of the same marijuana trafficking ring as Clark.

Detectives found five shell casings in the parking lot. Initial medical reports showed Clark had been shot six times.

White sat quietly Monday at his first appearance wearing the red jail pajamas reserved for inmates who are charged with capital crimes. He politely answered questions from Magistrate Clark Peterson, and told the court he had hired Coeur d’Alene attorney Doug Phelps to represent him.

Peterson set a preliminary hearing within 14 days.

According to deputy reports, at least two witnesses told authorities Clark feared that Nate Norman, who was “Kid Cannabis,” the leader of the marijuana trafficking ring, had put a hit on him for testifying against Norman in the federal marijuana case. Norman served 12 years in prison beginning in 2004 when he was 21, while Clark was spared a similarly lengthy prison term because he cooperated with the trafficking investigation. One witness told detectives that Clark mentioned the “hit” four days before his death.