always had a smile on no matter what happend and thats what makes us strong today

Arrest me, I hurt my baby,î  Clark sobbed after walking into the Hennepin County Jail May 14.

Clark was referring to Patricia Ann McGhee, the mother of their three children, whohad kicked him out of her apartment three weeks earlier.

Now he's charged with second-degree murder in the Burnsville woman's fatal shooting.

Police found McGhee, 31, dead in the apartment on Evergreen Drive.Clark went to the Hennepin County Jail at around 2 a.m. to turn himself in.

Interviewed later by Burnsville police, "He told the officers that she was gone, and to just punish him,î according to the criminal complaint.

Police later recovered additional, ominous evidence linking Clark with the victim.

"This appears to be another tragic example of domestic violence that has claimed a life in our community,î said Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom, who will give the case to the Dakota County grand jury for consideration of additional charges.

McGhee and Clark, 34, weren't strangers to Burnsville police.

Last fall police responded to a 911 call at the apartment, No. 109 in the Carrington Court complex. McGhee insisted that she'd dialed the wrong number, said police Sgt. Dan Carlson.

On April 28 police responded to a "family domesticî at the apartment. McGhee told officers it was a "verbal argument,î Carlson said.

"We separated the two,î he said. "And the last call we got was the homicide.î

Police got to the apartment at about 2:25 a.m. They found clumps of hair in the hallway and McGhee lying on the floor in the bathroom of the master bedroom.

She died of gunshot wounds to the head and chest. A spent 9 mm bullet was taken from her body during the autopsy, and another was found in the apartment.

Police were told by family members that Clark owned a 9 mm handgun.

They also said the couple's relationship was ending and that McGhee had kicked Clark out of the apartment about three weeks earlier.

Later that day police recovered a 9 mm handgun from a vehicle driven by a relative of Clark's who said the gun might be in the trunk.

Police made an ominous discovery the next day when an employee of a business on Cobblestone Lane in Burnsville reported finding "strange itemsî in the trash.

Police recovered a duffel bag with a tag bearing McGhee's name and address. Inside the bag was Clark's cell-phone bill, two sealed plastic containers of battery acid, a box of unfired 9 mm cartridges with five missing, 100 feet of white rope, a set of metal handcuffs, and documents addressed to Clark by a law firm, the complaint said.

McGhee's death is the fourth domestic homicide in Dakota County in the last year, Backstrom said. In 2003, 13 Minnesota women lost their lives to domestic violence.

Clark is being held at Dakota County Jail on $750,000 bail. His next court appearance is May 31.