One-time ‘Mass. Most Wanted’ suspect gets life in prison for 2017 murder of Weymouth mother

WEYMOUTH, Mass. — A man who was on the “Massachusetts Most Wanted” list has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2017 murder of his one-time girlfriend in Weymouth.

Cornel Bell, 50, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 33-year-old Michelle Clarke. Prosectors said Bell ambushed Clarke in her home in August 2017 and stabbed her 15 times.

“This was a brutal domestic violence homicide, ending a promising life and leaving a young child to grow up without his mother,” Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey said in a statement.

Bell received a mandatory life sentence after being convicted of first-degree murder July 1. Prosecutors pursued the charge based on both pre-meditation and the “extreme atrocity” of the crime, Morrissey said.

Bell fled to Cape Cod and eventually Florida, where he was arrested at a construction site more than two years later.

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