Page 16 - Michael Beard News Today

That her uncle tom had recently fired beard. >> michael beard was fired september 17th, and then kelley was murdered like the night of the 28th, 29th, so it wasnt long at all. >> was it possible that beard was angry about losing his job and that kelleys murder was some kind of revenge? molly went through her cellphone and her facebook contacts and gave investigators beards address. >> i gave that to them and they were just like, okay, thank you. >> the steuben county sheriffs office needed all h...

Possibly could have done this? >> kelleys niece molly had an idea. >> i looked at my mom and i was like, yeah. >> molly, only 16 at the time, told police she spent the summer working for her uncle at his restoration business, surf pro, and there she met one of his employees, a man named michael beard. tom told her to keep her distance. >> he never really wanted me around michael beard. he didnt want me like working with him. >> michael beard was no stranger to the family. >> he actually had done...

It out. >> while investigator lambert was speaking with beard, he was interrupted by a colleague who had been grilling beards wife. she mentioned a dramatic piece of information, something about a big payment beard was expecting to get from tom, $10,000. the investigators confronted beard. >> at that point he was just defeated. i had looked at him and said $10,000, is that why you killed kelley, and he looked at me and said, yes. >> this was your big moment. >> that was -- that was the win. >> m...

Investigator it was toms partner who fired him, not tom, and tom was even trying to help beard find another job. >> are you getting any bad feeling from him? are you suspicious of him? >> not at all. >> so youre thinking this is going to be somebody were going to cross off the list? >> yes, i didnt expect to see him again. >> to the investigator and those close to kelley, michael beard didnt seem like a good suspect at all. >> did you think it is possible, he was a disgruntled employee, he was t...

Right off the bat as we need to go talk to michael beard again. >> he denied any type of involvement. he even denied receiving the phone call. they never talked. >> did that seem odd? >> it did can seem odd. he denied having any type of conversation. he said he didnt even remember receiving it and he wouldnt have answered a call that wasnt -- that he didnt know the number. >> and when investigators looked at beards phone, there was no sign of a call from linda millers cell. >> it had been erased...

Make their decision. as they filed back into the courtroom, the reporter noticed a change in tom clayton. >> that was really the first time that i saw in his face that you got the sense that this guy finally knew that, oh, god, i could go to prison for life, depending on what theyre about to say. >> and then they said it. guilty of first degree murder. outside the courthouse there were tears. lots of them. >> thank you. i think -- i believe justice was done here today. i do. >> tom clayton and m...

Slam dunk for investigators, tom claytons would be anything but. the prosecutor knew he couldnt use beard to testify against tom. >> even if he came forward and said i want to testify now, he had lied so many times, he had lied at his own trial. >> beard had changed his story so much at his own trial that he wouldnt have been a credible witness. >> tom and his lawyer pounced on that, telling reporters that beard acted on his own. >> this is purely mr. beards doing. what we do know is that mr. cl...

And he gets out on $250,000 cash bail. >> thats pretty low. >> and he has been out ever since. >> and he seemed determined to profess his innocence to anyone who would listen. >> he said i would like to tell you my side of the story. i said i really dont want to hear it. i dont want to get any more involved, and he is, like, partially crying, and he is saying, you know i wouldnt do that. >> months went by as the state prepared the case against each man. michael beard was the first to go to trial...

Toms trial began. >> i have never been in such a tense, anxious atmosphere. the courtroom was typically tense throughout the entire trial, but as far as anxiety was concerned, i had never been in a room that was filled with so many anxiety. >> the only one who didnt seem tense to the reporter was the defendant himself. he saw tom clayton smiling and kidding around with family members. his lawyer, though, was on the attack. he told the jury how investigators had immediately labelled tom a killer ...

>> more than a little suspicious, the millers kept digging. they went online to check lindas phone records and there it was, the number tom dialed about an hour before the murder, a number they didnt recognize. investigator donnie lewis took it from there. >> so what i did was i got the number and put it into actually facebook on my phone, and as soon as i put that number in the profile that pops up is michael beard. >> michael beard, the ex employee who had been some cooperative with investigat...