{"id":186227,"date":"2026-03-02T02:03:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T02:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/186227\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T02:03:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T02:03:28","slug":"stephen-clare-pleads-guilty-in-vicious-attack-of-ex-wife-daughters-in-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/186227\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Clare pleads guilty in vicious attack of ex-wife, daughters in 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

BEXAR COUNTY, Texas \u2013 Stephen Clare<\/a>, who was charged in the death of his 11-month-old daughter, pleaded guilty to capital murder and two other charges in connection with the 2023 attack.<\/p>\n

Clare pleaded guilty to the following charges on Friday:<\/p>\n

Capital murder of a child under 10 years old<\/p>\n

Attempted capital murder of a child under 10 years old<\/p>\n

Aggravated assault with a weapon<\/p>\n

He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.<\/p>\n

Clare shot his ex-wife, Mariah Gardner<\/a>, and attacked his daughters, Rosalie and Willow Gardner, on April 10, 2023. <\/p>\n

Willow Gardner, an 11-month-old, did not survive her injuries from a stabbing.<\/p>\n

Clare, who wore a red jumpsuit with his eyes open and head bowed, was called to appear before presiding Judge Joel Perez of Bexar County\u2019s 437th Criminal District Court at 9:55 a.m. Friday. <\/p>\n

Stephen Clare (wearing red) was called to appear before presiding Judge Joel Perez of Bexar County\u2019s 437th Criminal District Court just before 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (KSAT)<\/p>\n

Perez read aloud the terms of his plea deal, which Clare agreed to. <\/p>\n

Clare officially pleaded guilty to all three charges at 10:02 a.m. <\/p>\n

Victim impact statements, including a statement from Gardner, were read in court. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe man who vowed to protect us shot me through the face and left me to die,\u201d Gardner said in court. \u201cI crawled, bleeding to death \u2014 surviving on shock and adrenaline \u2014 onto a sidewalk because I wanted my children to be safe.\u201d <\/p>\n

Watch the full victim impact statements below. <\/p>\n

After the statements were read, Gardner also spoke with KSAT outside the courtroom about Clare\u2019s guilty plea. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so surreal because it\u2019s something that we\u2019ve been waiting for for such a long time,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cTo hear him (Clare) say, for the first time in almost three years, that he is guilty \u2014 which, of course, we all knew. Just to hear it out loud was incredibly painful, and it reminds me of why we pushed so hard for so long. I\u2019m very thankful for the outcome today.” <\/p>\n

If his case had gone to trial, Clare would have faced the death penalty.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even think the death penalty would have been enough for the crime that he committed,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cIt will never heal my children. It will never heal me from the trauma that I endured. Just knowing that he will be in the prison system for the rest of his life \u2014 however long that may be \u2014 is good enough for me, and we can move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch Gardner\u2019s full interview below. <\/p>\n

Background<\/p>\n

San Antonio police said Clare got into an argument with Mariah Gardner before he shot her and attacked her children at a home in the 500 block of Robinhood Place.<\/p>\n

Authorities said Clare was taken into custody a short time later at another home in the 1500 block of Haskin Drive, located approximately a mile and a half from the Robinhood Place home. <\/p>\n

During a Feb. 6 hearing, San Antonio Police Department Sgt. Christopher Lloyd provided testimony on the department\u2019s investigation following the attack. <\/p>\n

Lloyd said multiple warrants were issued to obtain pieces of evidence, which included the gun used by Clare to shoot Mariah Gardner. <\/p>\n

The gun was not found at the crime scene. However, the prosecution previously revealed that the gun had since been recovered after attempts from law enforcement to locate it. <\/p>\n

Attorneys representing Clare filed several motions to suppress evidence, which included a search warrant issued at his residence and a statement he provided to a Child Protective Services investigator<\/a> at the Bexar County jail. <\/p>\n

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic violence, there is so much help for you. KSAT has a list of resources<\/a> on its Domestic Violence webpage<\/a>, which also explains how to identify different types of abuse.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s an emergency, text or call 911. For wrap-around services, including the Battered Women and Children\u2019s Shelter, call Family Violence Prevention Services <\/a>at (210) 733-8810.<\/p>\n

You can also contact the Bexar County Family Justice Center<\/a>, which also provides wrap-around services at (210) 631-0100.<\/p>\n

More recent coverage of the Stephen Clare case on KSAT: <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEXAR COUNTY, Texas \u2013 Stephen Clare, who was charged in the death of his 11-month-old daughter, pleaded guilty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[698,815,294,32175,82,84,83,32174,51314],"class_list":["post-186227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-bexar-county","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-mariah-gardner","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-stephen-clare","tag-we-follow-through"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}