Crime Documentary - The Steve Beard story

Viewer discretion is advised. Some may find this content disturbing. This is a documentary I found interesting.

Celeste Beard Johnson (born February 13, 1963), more commonly known as Celeste Beard, is a convicted American murderer who is serving a life sentence at the Murray Unit in Gatesville, Texas for the 1999 murder of her millionaire husband, Steven Beard.

On October 2, 1999, Beard was shot in the stomach while he was asleep, at his home near Jollyville, Texas. The wound became infected, and he died on January 22, 2000. Local police tied the shooting to Johnson's friend, Tracey Tarlton. The women had met in Saint David’s Pavilion, a mental-health facility, after Johnson threatened to commit suicide when she and Beard began fighting over her lavish spending. Tarlton, arrested at home six days after the shooting, was charged with assault. The police began to hear that Johnson had spoken negatively about Beard. She refused to let them interview him while he was hospitalised; her behaviour was oddly casual after his death, and she had slept in a different room the night he was shot.

Despite mounting suspicion of Johnson and Tarlton's romantic feelings for her, Tarlton remained silent until July 2000, when she read in a local newspaper that Johnson had remarried, 6 months, after Beard’s death. Realizing that their relationship was a sham and none of what Johnson told her about her marriage was true, Tarlton told police shortly before her murder trial began in March 2002 that Johnson had persuaded her to shoot Beard; Johnson claimed that Beard had emotionally abused her to the point of suicide, and getting rid of him was the only way the women could be together.

Based on Tarlton's statement, Johnson was arrested on March 28, 2002. At the trial, prosecutors charged that she had married Beard for his money and wanted him dead because he had tired of her extravagant spending and was considering divorce. The prosecutors alleged that Johnson had never loved Beard because of their age difference and his obesity. She had a hostile relationship with her daughters, who claimed to have heard their mother make threats against Beard. A friend of Johnson claimed that Johnson had hired her a month after Beard's death to kill Tarlton and cover up her crime. Other witnesses testified that they saw Tarlton and Johnson flirting and behaving affectionately, demonstrating Johnson's manipulative personality.