Salem gang member gets 17 years for shooting death of 15-year-old boy

Just after midnight on Nov. 6, 2023, neighbors heard the familiar sound of tires screeching and gunshots at the corner of Hoover School City Park – turf claimed by the local Norteños gang known as “Savage Block.”

Salem police hours later found 15-year-old Matthew J. Newman dead in a black truck several blocks from the shooting scene. 

The two teenagers who had been on a joyride with him had vanished. So had the then-17-year-old shooter, Gage J. Clark Adkins.

It wasn’t until two months later that police arrested Clark Adkins, who reached for a gun before police subdued him. His arrest came just a week after his 18th birthday, which meant he would be prosecuted as an adult.

Marion County Circuit Court Judge Tom Hart sentenced Clark Adkins on Thursday to 17 years in prison for first-degree manslaughter and unlawful use of a weapon. 

Clark Adkins pleaded guilty to those crimes on March 19 in a deal that spared him prosecution on charges of second-degree murder of Newman and first-degree attempted murder of the other two boys. He was also sentenced to three years of post-prison supervision.

Because Clark Adkins was under 18 when he killed Newman, he may be eligible for parole after 15 years under a state juvenile justice reform law passed in 2018.

The case highlights the symptoms of deadly violence that has increasingly plagued Salem in recent years.

Newman’s death came just days before police officials unveiled researchers’ findings that shootings in Salem had skyrocketed in recent years, with young men at the heart of the trend. A recent report by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office also showed that teenagers as well as members of gangs or more informal groups have become increasingly involved in gun violence across the county.

Clark Adkins was released on parole from the Oregon Youth Authority, the state’s juvenile justice agency, just 11 weeks before he killed Newman and was on the run from authorities at the time. 

“This is an extremely increasing, common theme in this community and it’s extremely concerning,” Marion County Chief Deputy District Attorney Brendan Murphy said at the sentencing hearing.

Murphy said there is no question that Clark Adkins was “actively associating as a Norteño gang member” when he shot Newman. 

Few details emerged in the sentencing hearing about what led up to the deadly shooting at the intersection of Northeast Savage Road and Northeast Ellis Avenue.

Newman wasn’t involved in a gang and had never been in trouble with the law, according to his mother, Jennifer Newman. The boy had only ever gotten in trouble at school for mouthing off.

Salem mother struggles to bear loss of teen son to gun violence

His mother told Salem Reporter that she heard the three were riding in a stolen truck when Matthew yelled insults at Clark Adkins and a friend who were walking by. Moments later, they passed the same people when Clark Adkins pulled the trigger. 

Newman was shot in the head. He collapsed. The boy driving the car parked on nearby Northeast Evergreen Avenue and the surviving teens fled, leaving Newman lifeless in the truck, according to a memorandum by attorney Michael Bertholf, who represented Clark Adkins.

Murphy acknowledged at the hearing that Newman’s family was upset that Clark Adkins was not being tried for murder in the end. He said prosecutors agreed to a plea deal for the lesser crime of manslaughter because it would be difficult for them to prove that the shooter intended to kill the boys – rather than scare them, for example. 

Murphy apologized to the family that state law does not allow prosecutors “to hold their child’s killer accountable,” he said. “They deserve Matthew to be here with them today, and the reality is there is nothing that the court system can do to get them what they deserve.”

‘Nobody wins’

One of the boy’s aunts, Jamie Newman, read a statement in court on behalf of her sister Jessica, who couldn’t attend in person.

She described her nephew’s infectious smile and laugh. “I think of all the smiles that I will no longer see,” she said, adding that she “died inside” when she learned that he had been killed.

She recalled how Newman’s friends and teachers spoke at his funeral about “how amazing, smart and incredibly kind he was,” and how he looked out for his friends and went out of his way to make people smile.

Newman was just barely starting to figure out how to become the kind of man he wanted to be, she said. “Now, he’ll never be able to have that opportunity that he so badly wanted. He’ll never get to be anything.”

Leslie Matthews, the wife of Newman’s mother, read a statement from the boy’s girlfriend, who she only identified as Ash.

The young woman said Newman was learning to drive and was about to start piano lessons and a new season of wrestling when he was killed.

She said she continues to be bullied and was assaulted as a result of her boyfriend’s killing. She ended up dropping out of school as a result. 

“You robbed me and Matthew of any possible future. I never will have the opportunity to see what we could’ve had together,” she wrote. “All I have now are photos and videos to look at. I think about Matthew every day.”

Murphy read a statement from a friend of Newman’s who he didn’t name. The friend said Newman’s death impacted them in a “deep and dark way,” sending them down a path of drug addiction and continuing alcoholism.

“What would make me feel a little better is if Gage died and rotted in prison. I know that’s not going to happen but that’s what he deserves,” they wrote.

The friend said they’d known Newman for seven years. The two grew up playing Minecraft and climbing trees together.

“I loved him like a brother. I want justice for my brother but I would rather have him back,” they said.

A family friend, Gary Dees, recalled the director of Newman’s funeral saying he wasn’t sure he could “repair the damage to make Matthew look like Matthew.”

Newman’s killing changed the way he sees teenagers. He said he’d been aware of the risks of gun violence but had never been impacted so personally. “That sense of safety has been taken from me and my family,” he said.

He said Newman had a “classic teenage attitude” from time to time but was also kind-hearted, warm, engaging and easy to connect with.

Two weeks before Newman’s death, his mom asked Dees to be his mentor, but he declined because he felt the boy needed more time than he could provide. He now wonders if he could’ve helped prevent Newman’s death.

Newman’s mom, Jennifer, described him as a sweet, funny and gentle boy who loved fishing and his family. 

A TV screen in the courtroom showed the boy grinning with confidence in a yearbook photo. She recalled him coming home from school that day and telling her, “Mom, you’re gonna like my smile. I looked on point.”

Caring for her son wasn’t always easy, she said. She previously struggled with addiction and they were homeless for six years, living out of their car before finally moving into a home.

“Everything was going right,” she said. But by his freshman year, Newman was well aware of the growing number of Salem-area teens involved in violence and became convinced that it would cost him his life. 

“Mom, someone is gonna kill me,” she recalled him saying. She tried reassuring him that he’d be safe, but he was adamant. 

“Like a thief in the night, you stole him from me and all the blessings I had coming,” she told Clark Adkins. “A future full of excitement and a life I thought I was going to have with him.”

She recalled being in labor for 36 hours and said she nearly died giving her son life. Since he died, she said she hasn’t felt alive but tries to stay strong for her 8-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. She keeps a picture of Newman in her car.

“This is our reality now,” she said.

She said she was angry that Clark Adkins killed her son less than three months after he was locked up for “making dummy guns,” and said he never should’ve had access to a gun.

“Where was his probation officer? Who was watching him? How does someone on supervision disappear and end up with a gun?” she said. “My son paid the price for that failure.”

She said Clark Adkins “gained nothing – no insight, no growth, no healing” from the year and a half he spent in youth correctional facilities. She fears he will kill someone else when he is eventually released from prison.

The two boys who were in the car with him when he was killed were their neighbors, and both their parents struggled with addiction, she said.

After Newman’s death, she said teenagers knocked on her door and harassed her, telling her that Clark Adkins was out looking for her family.

She said she struggles to work more than a few hours at a time in her job as a caregiver and rarely leaves the house.

Newman’s uncle, Wayne Newman, said Clark Adkins will have opportunities to get a higher education, travel, get married, have children, establish a career and learn from his mistakes – all experiences that his nephew will never have.

He said his young children struggle with depression and fear being in public as a result of their cousin’s death. His nephew, who has autism, has been chased by gang members wielding knives and guns, “inquiring about circumstances of his cousin’s murder.”

He said the two surviving victims, who were unarmed when they were shot at, now carry guns for self-defense.

Defense Attorney Michael Bertholf reassured Newman’s family at the hearing that Clark Adkins won’t have the opportunity for early release unless he makes changes.

Weeks before the shooting, Bertholf said Clark Adkins was released from juvenile custody to live with someone just a couple years older than him.

“I’ve never understood that,” he said, adding that the Oregon Youth Authority “has some responsibility for what happened here.”

Clark Adkins sat impassively, staring blankly ahead throughout the sentencing hearing. He appeared in a yellow inmate shirt with a mullet haircut, shackled and in handcuffs.

When it was his turn to speak, he stood and read from a piece of paper. He told Newman’s mother that he will never understand her pain.

“I won’t ask for forgiveness because some things are unforgivable,” he said.

Clark Adkins suggested that the surviving boys change their ways to shield themselves and their families from the situation he’s now in.

He also apologized to his own family, who sat in the courtroom, and told his younger brother to be a better person than him and learn from his actions.

Judge Tom Hart noted that Clark Adkins’ mother helped him lay low in West Salem before his arrest, but he didn’t elaborate.

The judge scolded Clark Adkins for his gang involvement. “Savage Block! And I’m gonna put on my colors! I’m wearing red! I’m a Norteño!” he scoffed. “It doesn’t make you any more of a man. Look at you! Wearing the one-size-fits-all silver bracelets joined at the wrist and attached to a belly chain.”

Hart said he will allow Clark Adkins to earn his way into a program that could get him a reduced sentence. 

“I don’t think you’re a big man by any stretch of the imagination, and I don’t think anyone else in the community does as well. But if you want to grow up and be somebody, you’re gonna have to make changes, significantly,” he said. “Nobody wins.”

CORRECTION: This story was updated to correct and complete a quote from Hart about Clark Adkins’ gang involvement, confirmed by an audio recording of the hearing. He referred to “silver bracelets,” not a suit. Salem Reporter apologizes for the error.

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Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.

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