"Even the mighty oak was yesterday's acorn that stood it's ground"
The Trial
Since Celeste hired Dick DeGuerin in October, 2002, as her Defense
attorney, he had less than five months to prepare for a drawn-out,
high-profile, Capital Murder charge. All requests by him for
more time to prepare were denied by Judge Julie Kocurek. Not
long before the actual trial started, ADA Bill Mange abruptly left
the DA's office and went into
private practice as a Board Certified Criminal defense
attorney. Then after Celeste's arrest, Mr. Mange solicited
Celeste, offering to represent her on another Conspiracy
to Commit Capital Murder charge. Steven Beard's murder
trial would have been the high point of Mr.
Mange's career. Celeste believes he was forced to leave the
DA's office because he actually had knowledge that the twins and
their boyfriends were lying, and had tampered with the "so-called"
evidence. Since the D.A. was not playing it straight, Celeste
never had a chance.
Letter from Bill Mange's Office
During the trial, the teenagers testified that the letters that were unsigned were printed from Celeste's computer. The Judge allowed them to be admitted as evidence against Celeste. The teenagers made audio tapes that were misleading since they did not contain the entire conversations and were obviously edited. Douglas L. Morrison (Director, Instructor, Audio Engineering, Dallas Sound Lab) gave an impressive testimony on the electronic editing of these tapes.
The Court allowed these to be admitted into evidence because the
Judge
said, "She's (Kristina) familiar with all of the voices that are on
this
tape. This is the original tape (because Kristina says it is)
and the
court is satisfied that this tape has been properly authenticated
and
that it is what the proponent claims it to be. It will be
overruled."
The Judge allowed the tape to be entered into evidence even
with
Kristina's own testimony that she cut part of the conversation out
of
the tape.
The State called the twins as witnesses against their mother. The teenagers claimed that Steven was unknowingly drinking Everclear because they said Celeste poured out his vodka and substituted it with Everclear. Twin Liquors was identified by the teenagers, but records of that liquor store or any liquor stores were not allowed as evidence to support Celeste's claim of innocence. Tarlton even testified that she took Kristina to buy Everclear, but Kristina denied that ever happened.
Tarlton Testimony Kristina Testimony
The teenagers also testified that Celeste consistently tainted
Steven's
food by hiding sleeping pills in it. The
Beard pharmacist disputed
this with her records of the family's medication
purchases.
The teenagers testified that most of the "evidence" they gave to
the DA
was retrieved from Celeste's trash. Celeste never authorized any
"throw
away" of personal papers, bank statements, or
journals. Why
weren't these items found by the police during their extensive
search? Celeste never gave the teenagers permission to rifle
through her papers and computers.
The twins said it was "the family" computer (it wasn't because it
was
in Celeste's and Steven's office in their wing of the home);
so why
didn't they take the computer to the DA to prove their
claims? The
teens each had their own laptop and PC in their bedroom,
specifically to
keep them off of Celeste's computer.
The twins and Tarlton testified that Celeste was also poisoning
Steven
with botulism prior to the October,1999, shooting. This makes
no sense
because Steven was a Gourmand and insisted on preparing all of
his own
meals. He definitely would have noticed if his food had
been tainted or
laced with botulism. The Judge allowed the prosecution
to admit into
evidence a book that had a recipe for botulism, copyright
dated
2000, because Tarlton said, "it was LIKE the one she
supposedly sold to
Celeste." The book admitted was copyright dated after the
date of the
shooting. Again, there were no receipts or medical testimony
to
corroborate their claims.
The State embarked on a campaign to malign Celeste's
character. Hans
Sherrer of
"Justice Denied" wrote, "A universal tactic by prosecutors
who have
little actual evidence is to expose the jury to as much
extraneous
testimony and character assassination (bad character
evidence) as
possible. Many defendants today are not convicted by a
jury based on
evidence of their guilt. Prosecutors are taught that
they
need minimal
(if any actual) evidence of guilt if they can smear a
person."
Every silly or sexual thing she did was embellished like a
cheap romance
novel. The State sought to corroborate Tarlton's
accomplice
witness testimony with mobile phone records. The phone
records
produced could not prove particular people were actually
communicating
at particular times. The State was allowed to submit
these records
as fact even with Tarlton's own testimony that no one
person could
be attached to a specific cell phone. ADA Allison
Wetzel
succeeded in
confusing the jury because the the Judge knowingly
allowed
the
prosecution to manipulate the
facts.
Then the Judge threatened Katina Lofton with
aggravated perjury. She was the only witness in the entire
trial that was ordered to place her hand on a Bible while being
sworn in. The Judge waited for the bailiff to retrieve a
Bible from the Judges chambers. Katina Lofton was called by
the defense to testify regarding conversations that she had
with
Tarlton in the county jail to impeach Tarlton's trial
testimony. Tarlton told Lofton that Celeste had nothing to do
with Steven's shooting, and that Tarlton intended to lie to
implicate Celeste. Katina also testified about Tarlton's
relationship with DA Rosemary Lehmberg.
ADA Wetzel read the indictment, "On March 28th of last year, 2002,
a
Travis County Grand Jury returned a three-count indictment
against
Celeste Beard for the offenses of Capital Murder, and Murder, and
Injury
to an Elderly Individual. (Celeste was convicted of two of
those
counts and sentenced twice- isn't that double jeopardy?)
Capital Murder
means the prosecution has to prove that the principal actor
(Tarlton)
did intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual
(Steven
Beard) by shooting him with a firearm, a deadly weapon; that it
was
done for Remuneration or the promise of Remuneration, and that is
namely
money, or the estate of Steven Beard or the assets of the Trust
created
by Steven Beard." The trial proved beyond a reasonable doubt
that
Tarlton shot Steven because she wanted to be with Celeste, and
that
alone.
Catherine Baen Closing Arguments Dick Deguerin Closing Arguments
In 2006, Wanda White's sworn statement says, "Tracey had told me
this
on the rec field (at a Gatesville Prison where they were
prisoners
together). I forgot to tell you. And she told me that-
that she killed
Steven because she wanted him out of the way, because she was
getting
too obsessed with Celeste, but that Celeste didn't know she had
feelings
for her. Celeste just knew her feelings were of
friendship. But after
she got rid of him, she was going to approach Celeste and admit
she
wanted to be with her as a lover." This sworn statement is
Exhibit A in
the Petition for Writ of Habeus Corpus in the United States
District
Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division,
which was the
last court action pending for Celeste. All Celeste wants is a
fair
trial. If granted, Celeste will definitely
testify.
