Former Manor Township man previously convicted of 2014 city bar killing sentenced up to 70 years in prison after being found guilty in re-trial

A county judge sentenced a former Manor Township man to 31 and a half to 70 years in state prison today after a jury found him guilty of shooting a man to death and injuring two others inside a crowded Lancaster city bar in 2014.

Judge Merrill Spahn handed down the sentence to Lamar Douglas Clark, formerly of the 100 block of Millersville Road. A jury last year had found Clark, 39, guilty of voluntary manslaughter, two counts of aggravated assault and 11 counts of recklessly endangering another person for shooting and killing 54-year-old Barry Diffenderfer at a bar in the 500 block of East Chestnut Street the night of Nov. 7, 2014.

Assistant District Attorney Mark Fetterman, who prosecuted the case alongside Assistant District Attorney Daniel Lingousky, told the court that Clark is “a danger to anyone who is in close proximity to him” due to his inability to follow the law and asked for a tough sentence to be imposed.

In handing down the sentence Spahn said he agreed with Fetterman’s assessment that Clark is dangerous to society, bemoaning the “senseless violence” he unleashed that killed Diffenderfer and left others injured.

Three of Diffenderfer’s children addressed the court prior to Clark being sentenced, with each of them asking Spahn to impose the maximum sentence possible behind bars.

One Diffenderfer’s sons told the court Clark was not just a threat to the community, but a “burden” who should remain imprisoned for as long as legally possible. Another one of Diffenderfer’s children said Clark “represents the worst of society,” calling him a “thug” and “coward.”

And while Diffenderfer was the only person killed that night, “every single person in that bar faced death” because of Clark’s actions, Fetterman argued.

Eleven people in total were endangered because of Clark, Fetterman said, and “it was luck, not design, that more people weren’t killed in that bar.”

Two other people were also shot by Clark during the encounter but survived. Both surviving victims testified during the five-day trial that spanned late September and early October that Clark was the man who shot them and killed Diffenderfer.

Clark began wiping away tears as he read a prepared apology to Diffenderfer’s family in which he acknowledged his “reckless” behavior and asked for forgiveness for the pain he caused them. An attorney representing Clark had moments earlier asked the court to impose a reduced sentence of 140 months to 43 years in state prison, promising that he would be a “changed man” and “law-abiding citizen” when released.

In 2016 a different jury had convicted Clark of third-degree murder for shooting and killing Diffenderfer. Though Clark had already served 11 years of a 38-and-a-half to 87-year sentence of that conviction, the Pennsylvania Superior Court granted Clark a new trial in 2023 after finding his attorney in the 2016 trial was ineffective.

While expressing disappointment in the legal process, Diffenderfer’s family thanked the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office and Fetterman in particular for his commitment to the case, with one of his sons citing Fetterman’s “passion for keeping the community safe from criminals.”

As part of his new sentence Clark must pay more than $17,000 in restitution.

Lancaster City Bureau of Police Det. Stanley Roache filed the charges.