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on this episode of women behind bars
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one woman is convicted of murdering her
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millionaire husband
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the first jewelry he gave me was like a
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three carat diamond ring and a
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42 diamond cocktail ring i can see him
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laying in bed he's got a phone in his
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hand it's
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covered in blood and he's literally
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holding his intestines in his hand
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then bernice ahrens tells her story she
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was an alleged accomplice in the fatal
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beating of a man held captive
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in her home they administered their
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beating of him including pouring
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ammonia or bleach in his wounds all i
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know is that
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one day i went to work and i came home
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and buddy's dead two women two brutal
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crimes
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these are the stories of celeste johnson
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and bernice ahrens
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[Music]
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[Music]
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in the early hours of october 2nd 1999
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a deputy responded to a frantic 9-1-1
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call
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originating from the home of aging
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multi-millionaire stephen beard
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and his wife celeste
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hello do you need an ambulance
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he said that he's woken up in the middle
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of the night and his intestines are in
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his hands i believe the term used was
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guts
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have blown out it first appeared to be a
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medical emergency
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however it was soon apparent that
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someone had tried to murder stephen
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beard
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it was clear that he had been shot that
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night
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the hunt for the shooter eventually led
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to the arrest of a mentally unstable
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woman
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named tracy tarleton who was a friend of
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stephen's wife celeste
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tracy fell madly in love with
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celeste tracy tarleton was trying to
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eliminate
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the competition by eliminating
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celeste husbands was celeste johnson
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behind a cruel plot to get rid of her
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husband for his fortune
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or did she take the fall for a woman who
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wanted celeste
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all to herself
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i grew up in southern california i was a
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few days old when i was adopted
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celeste was one of four children to be
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adopted by edwin and nancy johnson
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the family lived in a quiet suburb about
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an hour north of los angeles california
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i went to private schools and my
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life was real structured as far as the
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school and swim team but our home life
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was very crazy
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she was a very bright precocious
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beautiful child
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but she had this kind of dark side too
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where she would
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she would just go off on her brothers
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and her mother did take her in for
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psychiatric treatment but it didn't seem
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to actually help
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by the time celeste reached high school
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her parents had divorced
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and the financial strain forced the top
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student to enroll in public school
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suddenly i'm thrown into this new
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environment all these people have all
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these
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freedoms that i never experienced so
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when i was about 14 or 15
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i got involved with craig who happened
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to live right around the corner
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at 17 craig bratcher was two years older
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than celeste
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and according to celeste their
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relationship was dysfunctional from the
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very start
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he would have me come over like at 2 30
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or 3 o'clock in the morning
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and he would have sex with me and
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then in the morning i would clean his
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house and i thought that was
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left when celeste was 17
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she gave birth to twin girls christina
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and jennifer fathered by craig
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the twins were born several months early
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they were in the incubator for
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a few months and at first i couldn't
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even take them out or touch them or
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anything so i think we never really
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bonded celeste describes her eventual
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marriage to craig
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as on again off again and highly
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volatile
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[Music]
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crime writer catherine casey spent over
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a year researching the murder
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she uncovered records and spoke to the
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beard's friends and family members
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according to casey more than anything
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else celeste dreamed of a different life
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celeste saw herself as being entitled
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to more in life and craig didn't make a
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lot of money
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she needed that in her life she needed
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money
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by 1988 celeste had left craig she would
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ultimately be married five times
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but claimed that her kids were her
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primary concern if the person i married
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couldn't get along with my kids then i
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just left them
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but records uncovered by catherine casey
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paint a picture of celeste's kids
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spending months at a time
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in the custody of people other than
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their mother she was
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reported for leaving the kids home alone
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she dropped them off at foster homes
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from early ages on
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when they became inconvenient for her
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in 1990 when the girls were 10 celeste
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gave up custody and sent them to live
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with their father craig
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then in 1991 the 27 year old divorcee
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met 30 year old jimmy martinez
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we met at a bar in phoenix and he walked
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up and said
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i'm going to marry you and move you to
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texas and so
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two weeks later i was gone
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celeste and jimmy settled in austin
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texas but it didn't take long for
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problems to arise in celeste's marriage
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to husband number three
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before long he found out that the credit
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card bills were going up
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and it caused friction in the
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relationship
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through interviews with celeste children
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and those who knew her
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casey discovered that when things got
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tough celeste would threaten to commit
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suicide
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there was the time when she tried to
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jump out of the car on the middle of the
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freeway
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and jimmy grabbed her by the arm she
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reported him to the police saying that
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it was domestic abuse
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while still married to jimmy in 1993 30
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year old celeste took a job as a
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waitress at the exclusive austin country
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club
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it's where everyone and especially the
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old money
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in austin society that's where they hang
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out
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one of its members was 69 year old
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stephen beard who had recently sold his
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share of a local television station
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making him worth an estimated 15 million
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dollars
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he had three adult children in their 40s
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he was a big gregarious
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man demanding but i guess what attracted
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me to him was
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his wife had a stroke and he would bring
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her in and
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he would be feeding her scotch and i
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mean it would just be running down her
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chin
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to me that showed how much he left her
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eventually she died
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in october of 93 and i went up to him
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and i gave him a hug
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and he told me later on that that hug
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meant so much to him
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just imagine if you're less beard you're
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a waitress working for tips and all of a
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sudden you see this lonely old very
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wealthy man who just wants companionship
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mr beard probably thought it was the
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greatest thing in the world
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so ten days later we started uh dating
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and i moved in with him by christmas
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when we went into the clothing store you
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know he picked me out of shirt it was
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like six hundred dollars
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and then the first uh jewelry he gave me
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was like a three carat diamond ring and
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a
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42 diamond cocktail ring i mean he just
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lavished me
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with all this stuff shortly after moving
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in with stephen
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celeste filed for divorce from jimmy
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martinez and
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in february of 1995 married steven beard
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despite the near 40-year age difference
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to some the two
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seemed like a perfect match you couldn't
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help it like celeste she had a
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great sense of humor and a nice laugh
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she was easily amused
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he found a woman who could make him
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happy and that he wanted to shower
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attention on
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but the honeymoon wouldn't last long
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when women behind bars continues
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she became obsessed with me celeste
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asked tracy
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to kill steve she said if you don't i
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will kill myself
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and tracy agreed to kill steve to save
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celeste's life
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when 32 year old celeste married 71 year
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old steven beard in february of 1995
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her life suddenly felt like a dream come
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true he just put me on this pedestal and
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i never felt like that before with
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somebody i felt safe
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with him she saw his bankroll
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she saw the money he was able to give
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her the life she thought she
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deserved but problems began to crop up
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almost
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immediately celeste claimed stephen
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still wasn't over the death of his
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ex-wife elise
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we were living in the mansion that he
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lived with the lease
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everywhere i looked you know with my
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hair everything i felt like he was
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trying to turn me into her
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and i didn't want to be her i wanted to
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be me
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after less than five months of marriage
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the couple filed for divorce
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but within a week they reconciled and
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stephen made plans to build a brand new
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mansion and lake house for celeste
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he also agreed to help her regain
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custody of her 13 year old daughters
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the whole deal was if i married him he
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had to get
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my kids back i wanted to make sure that
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no matter what my kids were set for the
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rest of their life
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steven funded a costly legal battle and
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celeste was eventually granted custody
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of her daughters
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he also gave celeste a half million
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dollars to spend as she wished
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her closet was as big as most people's
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living rooms she had a shoe collection
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that rivaled
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mel de marcos i think one six-month
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period she went through half a million
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dollars
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the rate it was going she would have
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bankrupted him
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despite his generosity according to
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celeste life with stephen beard became
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increasingly unbearable
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all i had to do was be there at five
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o'clock
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when it was cocktail hour and we would
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have to sit
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sometimes till 10 o'clock and just our
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whole life revolved
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around cocktail hour and it drove me
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crazy
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they were both pretty volatile people
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she was a compulsive spender
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steven had some issues he drank very
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heavily i
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would always use the divorce card
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because i had been married
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so many times he knew that i would walk
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but celeste never did walk for one thing
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she'd signed a strict prenuptial
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agreement
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he was in love with celeste but he was a
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businessman and he understood money
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if they divorced during the first three
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years of the marriage she got nothing
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besides her personal property
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if she was married to him at the time
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that he died
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well then celeste was the primary
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beneficiary
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of the trust in the spring of 1999
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after a confrontation with stephen over
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money celeste threatened suicide and
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admitted herself to st
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david's pavilion a psychiatric hospital
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in central austin
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she goes the same day and basically
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she's got friends coming over
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and having pizzas delivered it's like a
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party but while there she strikes up
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this friendship
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with tracy talton according to
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authorities tracy was an alcoholic who
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was suffering from serious depression
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and had recently tried to commit suicide
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there was this pathetic lump of a person
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that my heart
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just went out to her tracy was at a low
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point in her life
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she was truly someone who had lived a
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horrific childhood
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she'd gone to st david's because she was
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drinking again and she'd become
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seriously suicidal
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celeste beard gave every indication to
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tracy tarleton
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that celeste beard wanted to be in a
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sexual relationship
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with tracy taught before long there were
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kind of stolen
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kisses and little romantic embraces
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somebody walked in one day
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and found tracy uh giving celeste a back
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rub
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celeste had her shirt off on the bed she
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soon fell in love
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with some less beer just like many
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people who have come in contact with her
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dead
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celeste insists the relationship was
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strictly platonic and denies any kind of
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sexual contact with tracy
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i really left her as a as a friend i
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didn't
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care that she was a lesbian i had just
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finally found
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somebody that i could talk to
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the two women then went to another
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institution called timberlawn together
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and actually lived together as
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outpatients at the end of their stay
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there
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they became lovers according to
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testimony the affair continued after
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celeste's release in the summer of 1999
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a relationship which celeste says had
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evolved into a one-sided obsession
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she became obsessed with me it finally
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escalated at my kids graduation party
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at the end of august photos show celeste
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dancing with tracy and sitting on her
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lap
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later on someone found the two in bed
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together celeste ate
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a lot of marijuana brownies and drank a
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lot of straight vodka
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did sex occur between them i think it
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did but i think it did
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in times when celeste was so out of it
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she didn't realize it
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in the fall of 1999 celeste's husband
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discovered the two women kissing during
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a dinner party at the beard mansion
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what finally happened was that steven
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beard
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kicked tracy out of their house told her
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never to come back
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tracy tarleton would later testify to a
00:14:06
very different version of her
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relationship with celeste
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celes beer was telling tracy tarleton
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i'm in this
00:14:12
very very bad marriage i don't want to
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be there so she was
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always talking about committing suicide
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about hurting herself
00:14:20
stephen determined to take celeste on a
00:14:24
worldwide tour they would be gone for
00:14:27
months
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he told quite a few people that this
00:14:30
trip was a test
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to see if he and celeste could get along
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together
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if this didn't work out the implication
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was there that he would go forward with
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the divorce
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prosecutors theorized celeste feared
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that stephen would divorce her
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cutting off access to his funds so in
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order to maintain her lavish lifestyle
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celeste needed to stay married but life
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with stephen had become intolerable
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so because of having to spend time with
00:14:56
a person who she was telling everybody
00:14:57
disgusted her she decided that something
00:14:59
had to be done quickly
00:15:01
she was not willing to take another
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extended trip
00:15:05
with her husband she asked tracy
00:15:08
to shoot and kill steve for tracy balk
00:15:12
didn't want to do it celeste
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said if you don't i will die i will kill
00:15:19
myself
00:15:20
and tracy agreed to kill steve to save
00:15:23
celeste's life
00:15:24
in order to get steve beard's money she
00:15:26
needed him dead
00:15:29
in the early hours of october 2nd 1999
00:15:32
the travis county sheriff's department
00:15:34
received a 911
00:15:49
rookie allen howard was dispatched to
00:15:51
the scene
00:15:52
i go to the left side of the house and i
00:15:54
can see him laying in bed
00:15:55
he's got a phone in his hand it's
00:15:57
covered in blood and he's literally
00:15:58
holding his intestines in his hand
00:16:00
i take an expandable baton and actually
00:16:02
break out that glass door
00:16:03
at this time i've been joined by one of
00:16:05
the medics and it does not look good at
00:16:06
this time
00:16:07
and he points out a shotgun shell to me
00:16:09
at that point everything changes
00:16:11
the light finally goes off while we have
00:16:12
a shooting
00:16:14
when women behind bars continues a
00:16:16
scheming wife
00:16:17
tries to get away with murder she
00:16:19
started screaming what happened to my
00:16:20
husband what happened to my husband
00:16:22
over and over and over what happened to
00:16:24
my husband
00:16:25
and later in this episode of women
00:16:26
behind bars a middle-aged mother claims
00:16:29
her friend forced her to take part in a
00:16:31
fatal beating
00:16:32
when that gun comes out you don't play
00:16:35
games with her
00:16:36
she snapped and i wasn't going to mess
00:16:38
with a
00:16:39
crazy person
00:16:52
in the early morning hours of october
00:16:54
2nd 1999
00:16:56
a deputy responding to an emergency call
00:16:58
at a mansion in southwest austin
00:17:00
discovered that a wealthy 74 year old
00:17:02
stephen beard had been shot in the
00:17:04
stomach
00:17:05
it first appeared to be a burglary gone
00:17:07
awry
00:17:08
when his much younger wife celeste
00:17:10
emerged the plot began to thicken
00:17:14
he started screaming what happened to my
00:17:15
husband what happened to my husband over
00:17:16
and over and over
00:17:18
it's not where is he going is he in
00:17:20
danger of dying is there anything i can
00:17:22
do
00:17:22
with some deputies she was almost
00:17:24
hysterical but with other deputies she
00:17:27
seemed almost giddy according to reports
00:17:30
that wasn't the only thing strange about
00:17:32
celeste's behavior
00:17:34
it was suspicious that she had not heard
00:17:36
the shotgun
00:17:37
being fired it was suspicious that there
00:17:40
was clearly a
00:17:41
scene set up there to make it appear
00:17:44
that a
00:17:45
burglary had occurred while stephen
00:17:47
beard was rushed to the hospital the
00:17:49
police wasted no time in interviewing
00:17:51
celeste daughters
00:17:53
one had been in the beard house that
00:17:54
night and the other had been staying
00:17:56
with her boyfriend at the family's lake
00:17:57
house
00:17:58
a name that immediately comes up is
00:18:00
tracy taulton
00:18:03
and they go to tracy talton's home and
00:18:05
she admits to them that she does own a
00:18:06
shotgun
00:18:07
and that shotgun turns out to be the
00:18:09
shotgun from which
00:18:11
the bullet that injured mr beard
00:18:14
was fired from six days later
00:18:18
tracy tarleton was arrested and charged
00:18:20
with injury to an elderly person
00:18:22
she quickly posted the 25 000 bail and
00:18:24
remained free for more than a year
00:18:27
as the weeks wore on investigators
00:18:28
became convinced that celeste beard was
00:18:31
somehow involved
00:18:32
and that her primary motive was to
00:18:34
inherit her husband's fortune
00:18:35
they zeroed in on celeste because
00:18:37
celeste was acting so oddly
00:18:40
she put a sign up on the door banning
00:18:43
the police from going in to interview
00:18:44
him
00:18:45
he didn't want to talk to the police he
00:18:47
just wanted to put everything behind us
00:18:50
critically injured stephen was taken by
00:18:52
life flight to a local hospital
00:18:54
he underwent emergency surgery but was
00:18:56
stabilized after several days
00:18:58
evidence shows that while her husband
00:19:00
was in the hospital celeste remained in
00:19:02
constant contact with tracy tarleton
00:19:04
at times he was very close to death but
00:19:07
he hung in there and he improved
00:19:10
and over a period of months continued to
00:19:13
get stronger
00:19:14
in january he's finally released from
00:19:17
the hospital
00:19:18
just one day after his release stephen
00:19:20
beard was readmitted to the hospital for
00:19:22
complications relating to his injuries
00:19:25
in a matter of days the 75 year old was
00:19:28
dead
00:19:31
for a long time it looked like it would
00:19:33
just be tracy tarleton who'd go down for
00:19:36
this
00:19:36
she was indicted first for the shooting
00:19:39
and then
00:19:40
after steve died for the murder
00:19:43
there was this lesbian relationship
00:19:46
going on between celeste beard and tracy
00:19:48
tarleton the only thing that stood
00:19:49
between
00:19:50
her and celeste beard getting together
00:19:53
with steven beard
00:19:55
but tarleton would find out differently
00:19:57
tracy taulton happened to read
00:19:59
a newspaper one day that had a wedding
00:20:02
announcement in it
00:20:03
and it was a wedding between celeste
00:20:05
beard and her new husband
00:20:08
at that point tracy talton realized
00:20:11
there was no relationship between her
00:20:13
and celeste beard
00:20:17
in february of 2001 tarleton was
00:20:19
formally charged with capital murder
00:20:21
she was arrested and held on five
00:20:23
hundred thousand dollars bail
00:20:25
in march 2002 while still in jail and
00:20:28
awaiting trial
00:20:29
tarleton finally agreed to cooperate she
00:20:32
told prosecutors celeste convinced her
00:20:34
to enter the beard home in the middle of
00:20:36
the night
00:20:36
and shoot stephen as he slept around two
00:20:39
o'clock in the morning
00:20:40
tracy drove to the beard mansion she'd
00:20:43
got out of the car
00:20:45
the door was unlocked and celeste had
00:20:47
told her that it would be
00:20:49
she walked into the bedroom stood at the
00:20:52
foot of the bed
00:20:52
saw steve sleeping in the bed put her
00:20:55
gun up
00:20:56
took a deep breath and pulled the
00:20:58
trigger
00:21:01
meanwhile celeste's relationship with
00:21:03
her twin daughters had deteriorated
00:21:05
due to her irrational behavior following
00:21:07
steven's death
00:21:09
just before their 18th birthday stephen
00:21:11
had legally adopted the twins
00:21:13
naming them as partial heirs to his
00:21:15
estate
00:21:16
after his death the twins joined
00:21:18
steven's natural children in a lawsuit
00:21:20
to regain control of steven's estate
00:21:22
from celeste to keep their mother from
00:21:24
spending the beard fortune
00:21:27
they saw her on the day of his funeral
00:21:30
practically celebrating his death
00:21:32
laughing about him having died
00:21:36
on march 29 2002 celeste was arrested
00:21:39
and
00:21:39
indicted for the murder of her husband
00:21:41
stephen beard
00:21:43
opening arguments in her trial were
00:21:44
presented the following february
00:21:46
the prosecutors did a pretty good job of
00:21:48
showing was that
00:21:50
she definitely moved into the starting
00:21:52
to plot steven's death
00:21:54
the night that stephen witnessed the
00:21:57
celeste beer and tracy tarleton
00:21:59
kiss she's willing to enter into a
00:22:01
lesbian relationship
00:22:03
in order to manipulate that person
00:22:06
into killing her husband dicta guerin
00:22:09
argues for celeste
00:22:11
that tracy tarleton is just plum crazy
00:22:14
that this woman is an aggressive
00:22:16
predatory lesbian
00:22:18
who has gone after celeste tracy
00:22:24
is an evil person she's
00:22:27
really is as close as someone can be
00:22:31
to being a homicidal uh
00:22:34
maniac prosecutors then presented
00:22:38
testimony from a woman named donna
00:22:39
goodson
00:22:40
who claimed that celeste paid her to
00:22:42
hire a hitman to kill tracy tarleton in
00:22:44
2000
00:22:45
after steven's murder tracy is the one
00:22:48
who can really
00:22:49
pull it all together and give the
00:22:50
complete picture it all really hung on
00:22:52
her testimony
00:22:53
if she came off as unbelievable on the
00:22:55
stand the prosecutors would not win
00:22:58
prosecutors did a good job of showing
00:23:00
that celeste beard
00:23:02
went through a lot of pains to
00:23:05
strike up a close personal relationship
00:23:08
with tracy tarleton and that
00:23:13
she was doing this with a thought in
00:23:14
mind of using tracy tarleton
00:23:18
in the end a jury believed that
00:23:21
celeste used tracy to get rid of steven
00:23:24
beard
00:23:32
when the verdict was read and i looked
00:23:34
over at celeste and she had this lost
00:23:37
quizzical look in her face as she didn't
00:23:39
understand
00:23:40
[Applause]
00:23:42
[Laughter]
00:23:46
celeste johnson who is serving her
00:23:47
sentence at a maximum security prison in
00:23:50
texas
00:23:50
has a message for her 27 year old twin
00:23:53
daughters
00:23:53
whose testimony helped put her away for
00:23:56
life
00:23:56
i would tell them that i love them and i
00:23:59
hope that someday that they'll be able
00:24:01
to forgive me for whatever i've done
00:24:04
to make them turn on me like this and
00:24:08
i'm sorry but i don't feel like it's
00:24:12
right either that i have to live
00:24:14
here for the rest of my life for a crime
00:24:17
that they know
00:24:18
that i did not commit
00:24:21
in accordance with his will stephen
00:24:23
beard's estate was divided between his
00:24:25
three biological children and celeste's
00:24:27
twin daughters
00:24:35
i just keep thinking that the truth is
00:24:37
going to come out and that i'm going to
00:24:39
be able to
00:24:40
to walk out of here with
00:24:44
all these life lessons that i've learned
00:24:46
and
00:24:48
live my life different be a
00:24:51
be a better person
00:24:53
[Music]
00:24:56
next up on women behind bars a mentally
00:24:59
impaired
00:25:00
man is allegedly abused and beaten to
00:25:02
death by a gang of six
00:25:03
led by two older women she was
00:25:07
hitting him and she wouldn't feed her
00:25:10
and let him eat
00:25:11
and i told her you can't do that he's a
00:25:13
human being
00:25:17
for more information on women behind
00:25:18
bars go to www.wetv.com
00:25:28
on august 26 1998 police found the body
00:25:32
of a 59 year old mentally handicapped
00:25:34
man
00:25:35
buddy musso in a ditch on the side of a
00:25:37
road
00:25:38
[Music]
00:25:40
at first the authorities could not id
00:25:42
the victim
00:25:43
because the injuries were so extensive
00:25:46
his body
00:25:47
was beaten literally from the top of his
00:25:50
head
00:25:51
to his toes investigators were led to a
00:25:54
gang of six
00:25:55
including 54 year old bernice aarons and
00:25:58
the ringleader
00:25:59
suzanne basso
00:26:02
bernice claimed she was forced to
00:26:04
participate while police believed she
00:26:06
was a willing accomplice to the other
00:26:07
woman
00:26:09
suzanne used a lot of manipulation and
00:26:11
threats
00:26:12
to get these folks to do what she wanted
00:26:14
they all said they were scared of what
00:26:16
she might do to them
00:26:17
if they did not comply with her orders
00:26:22
was bernice ahrens a willing participant
00:26:24
in buddy musso's sadistic death
00:26:26
[Music]
00:26:27
or was she forced to follow the orders
00:26:29
of her domineering friend
00:26:38
fifty-one-year-old bernice ahrens was a
00:26:40
lonely widowed mother of two
00:26:42
living in houston texas with her 25 year
00:26:45
old son craig and 22 year old daughter
00:26:47
hope
00:26:47
she had never had any brushes with the
00:26:49
law bernice ahrens
00:26:51
was a middle-aged woman with two adult
00:26:53
children craig and hope
00:26:56
she had a job had an apartment she lived
00:26:58
with her children
00:26:59
both craig and hope were slow
00:27:03
in 1995 bernice met suzanne basso
00:27:06
a 41 year old security guard for
00:27:08
apartment complexes and businesses
00:27:11
i worked in the harris county marriage
00:27:14
license and
00:27:16
dba office and she came in as a customer
00:27:19
and
00:27:20
i helped her we got to talking and
00:27:23
she asked me to go to dinner that
00:27:25
evening
00:27:27
and i went i was just
00:27:31
wanting friendship suzanne and bernice
00:27:34
became fast friends
00:27:36
she was always warm and friendly
00:27:39
and helpful and if i needed to go
00:27:42
someplace
00:27:43
if i needed some extra money if i didn't
00:27:46
have
00:27:46
she would you know she was
00:27:50
a person i could i thought i could count
00:27:52
on
00:27:53
but suzanne also had a mysterious past
00:27:56
she just had a lot of aliases a lot of
00:27:59
identifications
00:28:00
i don't know that anybody truly really
00:28:02
knew her or what she was about
00:28:04
because she tried to be somebody else
00:28:06
all the time
00:28:08
in july 1997 a few years after meeting
00:28:10
bernice
00:28:11
suzanne traveled to new jersey to visit
00:28:13
friends and met cognitively impaired
00:28:16
louis buddy musso at a church bazaar
00:28:19
buddy musso was a 59 year old man
00:28:23
who probably had
00:28:26
the mindset of an eight-year-old he was
00:28:28
mentally challenged
00:28:30
lived in cliffside park new jersey
00:28:33
at an assistant living facility everyone
00:28:36
in the assisted living facility just
00:28:38
loved him
00:28:40
suzanne i think targeted him you know
00:28:42
honed right in on him
00:28:44
saw him alone saw him by himself started
00:28:46
communicating with him by phone
00:28:48
and by letters he got very smitten with
00:28:51
her
00:28:52
and they started this so-called
00:28:54
relationship where he
00:28:57
saved up money to buy her an engagement
00:28:59
ring and he was saving up his money to
00:29:01
come to texas buddy wanted to be loved
00:29:04
he wanted to be part of a family
00:29:06
and i believe that suzanne
00:29:09
told him that that's what was going to
00:29:11
happen if he moved to houston
00:29:13
he bought a greyhound bus ticket had
00:29:15
bought some cowboy boots and a shirt and
00:29:18
a
00:29:18
necktie and got on the bus and headed
00:29:20
for texas
00:29:24
in june 1998 buddy moved to san jacinto
00:29:27
texas to live with 44 year old suzanne
00:29:29
basso
00:29:30
and her developmentally delayed 23 year
00:29:32
old son
00:29:33
james o'malley when buddy
00:29:36
arrived in texas his dreams of having
00:29:40
a wife and a family never materialized
00:29:43
he was living with suzanne basso in a
00:29:46
rental home and basically lived a life
00:29:48
of servitude
00:29:49
she had him carry groceries take out the
00:29:52
trash
00:29:53
you know do all the grunt work she took
00:29:55
him away from his support system and
00:29:58
so was able to have her will with him at
00:30:00
that point in time
00:30:02
according to court testimony suzanne
00:30:04
started to abuse buddy as soon as he
00:30:06
arrived in texas
00:30:09
she beat him many times for not doing
00:30:13
what she wanted him to do
00:30:15
soon after his arrival suzanne
00:30:17
introduced buddy to bernice
00:30:20
when she told me that she met him in new
00:30:23
york
00:30:23
that he was a friend of her sons and
00:30:27
he was going to come and live with them
00:30:29
and
00:30:30
i was surprised you know
00:30:33
that i thought he had a family boy come
00:30:36
here
00:30:38
meanwhile suzanne immediately laid claim
00:30:40
to buddy's assets
00:30:41
[Music]
00:30:43
she typed up a last will and testament
00:30:46
for betty which bernice aaron signed as
00:30:49
well as some of the other
00:30:51
kids signed as witnesses that upon
00:30:53
buddy's death all of his property would
00:30:55
go to suzanne
00:30:56
one of the provisions in it is that
00:30:59
suzanne basso is to get all of the
00:31:00
insurance policies that i have
00:31:02
and all the money that is to be in the
00:31:04
policies no one else is to get a cent
00:31:06
from it bernice claims suzanne forced
00:31:09
her to sign the will as a witness
00:31:12
one day she made me sign something
00:31:16
and i don't know what it was but she
00:31:18
says you gotta sign this and
00:31:20
and i i didn't even read it fourteen
00:31:23
months after buddy had moved to texas
00:31:25
forty-four-year-old suzanne brought
00:31:27
buddy and her son james
00:31:28
to stay at bernice's apartment saying
00:31:30
she had a leak in her home
00:31:33
according to bernice's statement to
00:31:34
police buddy was in bad shape when they
00:31:37
arrived
00:31:37
she says that suzanne brought buddy over
00:31:40
to her house friday
00:31:41
he had two black eyes several cuts on
00:31:43
the back of his head
00:31:44
buddy would sit on the mat in the
00:31:45
hallway and pick his head where he had
00:31:47
cuts and make it bleed
00:31:48
and it would make suzanne mad and she
00:31:50
would beat him with anything that was
00:31:51
handy
00:31:52
she hit him with a belt hands a wooden
00:31:54
bird anything she had
00:31:57
bernice didn't call the police instead
00:32:00
she allowed suzanne
00:32:02
buddy and james to move into her home
00:32:04
that she shared with her adult children
00:32:06
craig and hope ahrens and hope's fiancee
00:32:10
terence singleton and i suggest
00:32:13
that was the wrong thing to do
00:32:17
that was the wrong thing to do because
00:32:20
that's when everything
00:32:21
happened bernice claims that suzanne
00:32:25
took over immediately after moving in
00:32:27
she claimed that suzanne brandished a
00:32:29
gun to control the situation
00:32:31
every time she would leave the apartment
00:32:34
she would have one of my kids with her
00:32:37
i could have got the cops and said
00:32:39
something
00:32:40
but i didn't know what she would do with
00:32:44
my kids
00:32:45
i wasn't going to take that chance when
00:32:48
that gun comes out you don't play
00:32:50
games with her
00:32:51
[Music]
00:32:53
according to the testimony of each
00:32:55
participant the group including the
00:32:56
adult children
00:32:57
became involved in beating and torturing
00:32:59
buddy right away
00:33:02
you know their mom's there and so they
00:33:04
were going to do what their mom wanted
00:33:05
them to do
00:33:06
and again were involved that way
00:33:09
the abuse continued round the clock for
00:33:11
the next four days
00:33:13
they all took part each one whether they
00:33:17
slapped him
00:33:18
they kicked him they hit him with the
00:33:19
bat hit him with the
00:33:21
vacuum cleaner attachment dumped him in
00:33:24
the tub
00:33:25
all of the torture that he endured was
00:33:28
at the hands of all six
00:33:29
all of them took part in one way or
00:33:32
another i believe that it was very easy
00:33:34
for suzanne
00:33:35
to lead them she was the ringleader of
00:33:37
the group and because of their slowness
00:33:39
and probably because they wanted to
00:33:41
please her they participated
00:33:43
in what she began we were scared of her
00:33:48
of one person that had that gun
00:33:51
that mighty gun that could have done a
00:33:53
lot of damage
00:33:55
i was scared and the kids followed
00:33:58
my lead buddy
00:34:01
was such a sweet soul and i don't think
00:34:04
he really fought back
00:34:05
and so they had an open field to abuse
00:34:08
him
00:34:09
at will under suzanne's direction and
00:34:11
consent
00:34:13
the punishments kept getting worse and
00:34:15
worse and worse
00:34:16
i think at some point they just didn't
00:34:18
even see him as a human being
00:34:20
this was a primitive tribal
00:34:23
animalistic act that
00:34:26
was so far removed from
00:34:29
the social norms that it's difficult to
00:34:32
conceive
00:34:35
bernice claims she was either at work or
00:34:37
away from her home
00:34:38
during most of the beatings but police
00:34:41
allege that bernice didn't just watch
00:34:43
she actually took part in the brutality
00:34:46
in her statement to police at the time
00:34:48
of her arrest bernice admitted to
00:34:50
participating in the abuse
00:34:52
although now she claims having no
00:34:54
recollection of it
00:34:55
i don't i don't remember this
00:34:58
i don't remember seeing any of this
00:35:02
what do you want me to say
00:35:06
i don't remember it there wasn't
00:35:09
any person there that was strong enough
00:35:11
to prevent this from happening or to say
00:35:13
you know hey we shouldn't do this
00:35:15
she was hitting him and she wouldn't let
00:35:19
him eat
00:35:20
and i told her i said you can't do that
00:35:22
he's a human being what are you doing
00:35:25
and she says to me you shut up
00:35:29
four days after suzanne buddy and her
00:35:31
son had moved into bernice's apartment
00:35:33
suzanne went to the police to claim that
00:35:35
buddy had disappeared
00:35:38
she tried to set up a defense for
00:35:40
herself
00:35:41
she called the family and told them that
00:35:43
buddy was missing and then he'd possibly
00:35:46
run away with a little spanish lady that
00:35:48
he had met at the washitaria
00:35:51
which was a complete lie and she also
00:35:54
made a police report saying that that he
00:35:56
was missing at 10
00:35:58
15 p.m on tuesday august 25 1998
00:36:02
after five days of vicious beatings
00:36:04
buddy musso received a fatal blow
00:36:06
in the bathroom of bernice aaron's
00:36:08
apartment
00:36:09
they administered their final beating of
00:36:11
him including
00:36:12
scratching him with the wire brush on
00:36:14
his body and pouring
00:36:16
ammonia or bleach or ponzol in his
00:36:18
wounds and
00:36:19
dumping him in the bathtub where he
00:36:21
eventually died
00:36:24
in her statement to the police bernice
00:36:25
claimed that she was in the house when
00:36:27
buddy died
00:36:28
but passively waited for suzanne to
00:36:30
orchestrate the disposal of the body
00:36:32
she told the boys to get him dressed
00:36:36
that we would have to get rid of the
00:36:37
body and i
00:36:39
says no we're calling 911 she says no
00:36:42
we're getting rid of the body that's
00:36:45
when they
00:36:45
put clothes on him they put shoes on the
00:36:48
wrong foot
00:36:49
put him in the trunk of the car drove
00:36:50
him to a remote area
00:36:53
and dumped his body out on the side of
00:36:54
the road
00:36:57
when women behind bars continues the
00:37:00
medical examiner described a person who
00:37:02
just slowly was beaten to death
00:37:12
[Music]
00:37:16
after suffering weeks of abuse 59 year
00:37:19
old buddy musso was tortured and killed
00:37:21
by six accomplices
00:37:23
including 54 year old bernice ahrens
00:37:26
on august 26 1998 the day after he was
00:37:30
killed
00:37:30
a jogger discovered musso's brutalized
00:37:33
body in a ditch on the side of a road
00:37:35
the victim
00:37:36
had been severely beaten
00:37:39
we knew we had a homicide the first
00:37:42
thing that we noticed was that the
00:37:44
with the extent of the injuries of him
00:37:46
that the body had
00:37:47
on clean clothes very very few blood
00:37:50
stains
00:37:51
he had one shoe on it and it was on the
00:37:53
wrong foot
00:37:54
there was no identification on the body
00:37:56
at all well at that point i'd called the
00:37:59
dispatcher and
00:38:00
had her check for missing persons and
00:38:02
she notified us that a lady had reported
00:38:05
a missing person
00:38:06
they were able to put the two and two
00:38:08
together and recognize that the person
00:38:10
that was found in the field
00:38:11
was in fact the person that was reported
00:38:13
missing by suzanne
00:38:15
i went to the address of the lady that
00:38:17
reported that particular person missing
00:38:20
and made contact with her
00:38:24
chief pruitt drove suzanne basso and her
00:38:26
son james to the crime scene
00:38:29
i stopped the car back beyond the other
00:38:32
side of the bridge
00:38:34
and got out with uh james o'malley and
00:38:37
walked him up to about
00:38:38
where he could see the victim buddy
00:38:40
museum
00:38:41
and asked him if if that in fact was
00:38:44
buddy
00:38:45
and he immediately confirmed that it was
00:38:48
buddy
00:38:50
under questioning james o'malley
00:38:52
suzanne's son
00:38:53
confessed that they had killed buddy but
00:38:55
suzanne insisted
00:38:56
she was innocent she just broke down and
00:38:59
she went into her it's not my fault they
00:39:01
did this
00:39:02
and they did that and i told her i said
00:39:04
well your son
00:39:06
just confessed of everybody's
00:39:08
involvement in this
00:39:10
o'malley also named bernice erins and
00:39:12
her two adult children
00:39:13
hope and craig in his confession later
00:39:17
on police searched bernice's apartment
00:39:19
and questioned her
00:39:20
her kids and her daughter's fiance
00:39:22
terence singleton
00:39:23
we knew that they were probably involved
00:39:25
we detained them and
00:39:27
then we started safeguarding evidence
00:39:30
when the cops came i look like breathed
00:39:33
like a sign of relief like i'm glad it's
00:39:36
over
00:39:36
it's over and i'm glad the six
00:39:39
accomplices were booked in the harris
00:39:41
county jail
00:39:42
and charged with capital murder
00:39:49
i was in so much shock this you know
00:39:52
just being there
00:39:54
because i've never gotten into any kind
00:39:55
of trouble before
00:39:57
and i never was in a courtroom or
00:40:00
anything so i didn't know what to expect
00:40:03
and i'm just sitting there like like a
00:40:05
dummy
00:40:06
we tried her for capital murder and we
00:40:09
were seeking a life sentence
00:40:11
for capital murder i think that bernice
00:40:14
was willing to do whatever suzanne asked
00:40:16
i don't know if it was just for the
00:40:17
friendship
00:40:18
or the fact that bernice was just kind
00:40:20
of lonely and looking for
00:40:22
somebody you know just to sort of give
00:40:23
her positive feedback i don't know
00:40:25
[Music]
00:40:28
bernice's defense attorney argued that
00:40:30
her role in the crime was minor and
00:40:32
blamed suzanne vasso
00:40:34
he claimed that suzanne had masterminded
00:40:36
the murder in order to get money from
00:40:37
buddy's insurance policies
00:40:39
of which suzanne was the sole
00:40:41
beneficiary everybody's defense
00:40:43
primarily pointed to suzanne basso as as
00:40:46
the ringleader and she was
00:40:47
bernice had a full-time job so her part
00:40:50
was well you know i was working
00:40:53
how can i know what's going on when i'm
00:40:55
at work all i know is that
00:40:57
one day i went to work
00:41:00
and i came home and the house was empty
00:41:03
and then they all started coming in she
00:41:06
says
00:41:07
but he's dead but the prosecution argued
00:41:10
that bernice knew about the abuse and
00:41:12
participated
00:41:14
they presented as evidence a typewritten
00:41:16
signed copy of bernice's verbal
00:41:18
confession at the time of her arrest
00:41:20
in which she admitted to some
00:41:21
culpability
00:41:23
it was clear that suzanne was the one in
00:41:26
charge
00:41:27
and bernice was willing to do her
00:41:28
bidding they tried to argue that they
00:41:30
were just present
00:41:31
the law says that merely being present
00:41:34
doesn't make you responsible for a crime
00:41:37
they were all willing and active
00:41:38
participants
00:41:39
and as a result of all of them acting
00:41:41
together this man died
00:41:43
[Music]
00:41:46
the cornerstone of the prosecution's
00:41:48
case were photos and testimony
00:41:50
which proved that musso had suffered
00:41:52
greatly the autopsy photographs were
00:41:55
extremely
00:41:56
important in this case because that was
00:41:58
our case
00:41:59
to show how badly that man had been
00:42:01
beaten the medical examiner described a
00:42:03
person who
00:42:04
just slowly was beaten to death
00:42:12
the jury found bernice aaron's guilty of
00:42:14
murder and they gave her 80
00:42:16
years in the texas department of
00:42:17
corrections i was in total shock
00:42:20
because i didn't do it i kept saying i
00:42:23
didn't do it i didn't do it
00:42:26
and i felt that all right
00:42:29
if i was in the house when it happened
00:42:32
which i was
00:42:33
i'm admitting that at least i could have
00:42:37
been
00:42:37
charged with cynics you know an
00:42:39
accessory
00:42:40
or something but not for the crime i
00:42:43
didn't do the crime
00:42:45
i was glad that the jury gave bernice 80
00:42:48
years because that's a lot of time
00:42:50
and i thought that was appropriate for
00:42:51
her actions
00:42:53
bernice's children were also found
00:42:55
guilty 26 year old craig was sentenced
00:42:57
to 60 years
00:42:58
23 year old hope got 20 years for a plea
00:43:01
bargain where she confessed to murder
00:43:03
and testified in suzanne's trial against
00:43:05
her
00:43:06
suzanne was found guilty and convicted
00:43:08
of capital murder on august 27
00:43:10
1999 the jury also convicted james
00:43:14
o'malley and terence singleton
00:43:16
of capital murder they were sentenced to
00:43:18
life in prison
00:43:19
suzanne basso was tried for the capital
00:43:21
murder of buddy musso
00:43:22
we sought the death penalty and the jury
00:43:25
ultimately sentenced
00:43:26
suzanne basso to death for that crime
00:43:29
suzanne is a death row inmate at a
00:43:31
medical facility in a maximum security
00:43:34
prison
00:43:35
i don't believe in the death penalty but
00:43:37
that's one person that i believe
00:43:38
should get the death penalty for ruining
00:43:41
other people's lives
00:43:43
yes in 2002
00:43:46
bernice was transferred to a maximum
00:43:48
security prison in marlin texas
00:43:50
the same facility where her daughter
00:43:52
hope is serving her sentence
00:43:54
she sees her daughter once a week
00:43:56
bernice maintains her innocence
00:43:58
but does regret her actions if i didn't
00:44:00
open up my house to her
00:44:03
none of this would have happened and i
00:44:05
blame myself for the whole thing
