CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – At the Walmart Supercenter on Fort Campbell Boulevard Thursday, shoppers idly pushed their carts across the parking lot and roamed in and out of the store. They might not have noticed on the far-left side, next to the mobile order pickup and grocery entrance, a large stone flowerbed, and in the center, a small tree with a stone placard bearing a name: William T. Eakes Jr.
But one family will never forget what happened just a few yards away at the store’s entrance. At around 11:54 p.m. on the night of March 1, 2022, Clarksville Police responded to shots fired at the store. They found 55-year-old Eakes, a Walmart maintenance employee, lying on the ground, unresponsive. Eakes died from his injuries. Christopher Clark, whom Nafe had followed after he stole chips and a soda from the store, was charged with first-degree murder.
On Wednesday, a jury found Clark guilty of first-degree murder, bringing some relief to the family he left behind.
“It was two years of anger, pain and resentment and leaving this in the hands of strangers we didn’t know, praying that they see what we see,” Emma Nafe, Eakes’ daughter, told Clarksville Now.
Nafe said it wasn’t just justice for her dad, but for her mom as well. One month after Eakes was murdered, her mother Terri died. Nafe said her mother had been dealing with complications from a gastric bypass surgery for years, and after Eakes was murdered, Terri’s health declined rapidly. She said that for 10 years, her father was her mother’s primary caregiver.
“She was one of the candidates (for gastric bypass) who never stopped losing weight,” Nafe said. “She was 84 pounds when she passed away. After everything that happened with Daddy happened, she came to live with my family.”
Terri had gone to the doctor for a routine iron infusion when medical personnel realized they couldn’t get a read for her blood pressure. Terri was taken to the ER and then by LifeFlight to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Terri’s heart stopped beating, and she was put on a ventilator and life support.
“All their tests showed she had heart disease,” Nafe said, adding that what she really died of was a broken heart. “I fully blame him (Clark) for taking both of my parents,” Nafe said. “To know that we finally made that finish line, and we got the justice they deserved, it felt like a weight lifted.”
Hard worker who never knew a stranger
Nafe said she grew up watching her father work his hands to the bone in a steel factory, calling it a miserable job with terrible work conditions, but he did it for his family.
“There was no heat in the winter, and no air in the summer,” she recalled. “He did 16 to 18 hours a day just to provide for us.”
She said Eakes never knew a stranger and helped people whenever he could. That was one thing that bothered Nafe most about the trial: “If this whole thing was just about snacks, somebody being hungry? My Daddy would have fed him,” Nafe said.
According to Nafe, there were three things her dad loved most: riding his Harley, spending time with his grandkids, and being with Terri. “For 35 years, we had never seen him without her,” she recalled. “Or her without him, unless he was at work.”
There are a lifetime of memories that Nafe shares with her father, but a few stood out.
“The day he watched me have my daughter,” she said tearfully, before taking a deep breath and letting out a short laugh, “and him getting stuck in our yard! He got his truck stuck in our yard. His truck sat in our yard for a couple of days, because it was so wet outside and we couldn’t get it out, but we had my daughter’s birthday party with his truck stuck in my yard.” Through the laughter, Nafe could recall her dad saying, “Sorry, baby girl!”
Since Terri was never without Eakes, a lot of Nafe’s memories are of her parents together. “There’s not many memories where it’s not them together,” she said. “Our last vacation to New Orleans together. She (Terri) liked to watch cooking shows and all these places to eat around the world. He took her to New Orleans just try out the places that she wanted to eat at, even though she couldn’t eat more than a jar of baby food.”
Be loud, be vocal, be present
With the guilty verdict, Nafe and her family reflected on the people in law enforcement who made this justice possible. She called Clarksville Police Detective Benjamin Goble the detective they needed. District Attorney General Robert Nash prosecuted the case with assistance from Michael Pugh, deputy district attorney.
“Working with Detective Goble, he’s kind of made his way into the family,” Nafe said. “He showed up to my mom’s funeral service when he didn’t have to. … We hit the lottery when we got him and Nash as well … and DA Pugh? An amazing, amazing man.”
When asked what she would say to other families of loved ones lost to homicide, Nafe said, “Don’t give up. Fight for the ones who don’t have a voice to fight.
“Lean on your people that you have around you. Trust that, in due time, it may seem like it’s a while to wait, but justice will come. Be loud, be vocal, be present. Ask for answers, be there for all the little things, even when they tell you it doesn’t matter. Even if you’re there for five minutes or five hours. Be present and let them know, ‘We aren’t giving up, we want answers, and we want to see this through.'”
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