Chase Massner Death: Clement Pleads Guilty Monday, Sentenced

MARIETTA, GA -- James Bradshaw Clement pled guilty Monday afternoon in charges related to the death of U.S. Army veteran Chase Massner, who was reported missing in early 2014 and whose remains were found on Aug. 1, 2017, at Clement's former Kennesaw residence. Clement was sentenced to 15 years, with 8 years to serve in prison and the rest on probation, and was fined $1,000. He pled guilty to once count of concealing the death of another, and making a false statement.

Massner was a 26-year-old husband and father to two children at the time of his disappearance. He was close to Clement and reportedly went to his home one day in March 2014 after having an argument with his wife. He presumably spent the night there, but was never heard from again.

Cobb County police apprehended Clement after charging him with concealing a death in the missing person investigation.

Clement, 33, entered his plea on the day when motions were to be argued ahead of a January trial.

Massner was working at QuikTrip after leaving the Army. In March 2014, Massner and his wife were arguing, and she left him at a QuikTrip in Kennesaw near Clement’s residence on Farmbrook Lane. The two were acquaintances, and Massner went to Clement’s house, which is also near the Cobb-Cherokee border. Massner’s wife reported him missing when she was unable to contact him.

In multiple interviews, Clement denied knowing Massner’s whereabouts and gave changing stories concerning the circumstances surrounding Massner’s purported disappearance.

Clement moved out of the house several months later. In summer 2017, cadaver dogs alerted on a concrete slab under a deck at the house, and on Aug. 1, 2017, investigators brought in a backhoe and dug it up. Massner’s skeletonized remains – with the same red top his wife said he was wearing when she last saw him -- were found wrapped in plastic that was secured with duct tape. The remains were so decomposed that even extensive forensic testing, including an examination by a forensic anthropologist at the Mayo Clinic, was unable to discern a cause and manner of death.

When investigators confronted Clement about the remains, he insisted he was being set-up. Later, he fled after agreeing to turn himself in to face the charges, and was on the run for several days before being located in DeKalb County by Cobb Sheriff’s Fugitive Unit on Aug. 10, 2017.

Massner’s mother was in the courtroom this afternoon, and Chief ADA Jesse Evans read her written impact statement, lamenting the loss of her only son, who “would not have left his two little girls.”

“Words cannot begin to explain the torment me and my family and Chase’s friends have been put through at the hands of Brad Clement,” she wrote.

Evans told the court: “This has been a heart-wrenching process for Massner’s family, as well as law enforcement.”

Cobb Superior Court Judge Stephen Schuster sentenced Clement to 15 years, with eight years to serve in prison and the rest on probation, and he imposed a $1,000 fine.

Attorneys Alexander Susor of Decatur and David Wolfe of Atlanta represented Clement, who told Massner’s family, “I’m very sorry for your loss,” before he was led from the courtroom

SEE ALSO: Group organizes search for Chase Massner

Chase Massner Case: Autopsy Shows Heroin, Meth Use

Chase Massner Case: Fugitive Found Walking Through Woods

Mom Of Missing Vet: 'I Never Thought He Would Be in Brad's Backyard

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