Celeste Beard

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 Christina Melton Crain Unit in Gatesville, Texas for the 1999 murder of her millionaire husband, Steven Beard.

Celeste Beard
Born
Celeste Johnson

(1963-02-13) February 13, 1963[1]
Santa Barbara, California
OccupationInmate
Criminal statusIncarcerated
Spouse(s)Craig Bratcher (divorced)[2]
Henry Wolfe (divorced)
Jimmy Martinez (divorced)
Steven Beard (widowed)[2]
Spencer Cole Johnson (divorced)[2]
Children2
Conviction(s)Murder, injury to an elderly individual, and conspiracy to commit murder[1]
Criminal penaltyLife imprisonment

Background

Celeste Johnson's biological parents are unknown. She claimed that her adoptive parents, Edwin and Nancy Johnson, physically abused her as a child and that she made a suicidal gesture during puberty.[3] At age 17, Johnson became pregnant and gave birth to twins, Jennifer and Kristina, with first husband Craig Bratcher.[2] After their divorce, she lost custody of her daughters.

Johnson married twice more before meeting Steven Beard while she was a waitress at a country club in Austin, Texas. Beard, a retired Fox Broadcasting executive and self-made multi-millionaire more than twice her age, was a widower whose wife had died of cancer. Johnson moved in with Beard after he convinced her that he would help her regain custody of her daughters. After winning the case, they began dating in secret (with Johnson pretending to be Beard's housekeeper) until his daughter discovered them in a hotel room during the 1993 Super Bowl. They were married on February 18, 1995, with Beard's family and friends suspicious that Johnson had married him for his money.[4]

Crime

On October 2, 1999, Beard was shot in the stomach while he was asleep, at his home near Jollyville. Beard was later released from the hospital, but succumbed to a blood clot on January 22, 2000.[2] Local police tied the shooting to Tracey Tarlton, who Johnson had met at Saint David’s Pavilion, a mental health facility, after Johnson threatened to commit suicide when she began fighting with Beard 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 hospitalized, behaved inappropriately after his death, and had slept in a different room the night he was shot.

External video
HLN:Scorned Lover's Week: Texas vs. Celeste Beard

Despite mounting suspicion of a lesbian relationship between Johnson and Tarlton, the latter remained silent until July 2000, when she read in a local newspaper that Johnson had remarried six months after Beard’s death and realized that their relationship was a sham. Shortly before her murder trial began in March 2002, Tarlton told police 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.[5]

Trial

Based on Tarlton's statement, Johnson was arrested on March 28, 2002. At Johnson's trial, prosecutors charged that she had married Beard for his money and wanted him dead because he was tired of her extravagant spending and was considering divorce.[6] According to Beard's accountant, Johnson spent $321,000 in October and November 1999, an additional $249,000 by December 10 and another $100,000 in the six weeks ending March 31, 2000. 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 she 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.

Johnson's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, alleged that she had nothing to do with the shooting and that Tarlton (whom he dismissed as an unreliable witness due to mental instability) acted alone; Tarlton was obsessed with Johnson, who denied making sexual advances toward her. According to Johnson, Tarlton tried to kiss her after she had passed out during her daughters' 1999 high school graduation. When Tarlton was arrested for drunk driving and Johnson bailed her out, Beard (angered by photos of Johnson and Tarlton together) demanded that Tarlton stop contacting the couple. Several witnesses saw no problems in Johnson and Beard's marriage, and DeGuerin alleged that Johnson's daughters lied on the witness stand because they would inherit less money if their mother was acquitted.

In 2003, Johnson was convicted of capital murder, receiving a mandatory life sentence. She will be eligible for parole on April 1, 2042.[7][8] Johnson continues to maintain her innocence and as of 2019, is imprisoned at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Christina Melton Crain Unit in Gatesville.[9] Tarlton received a 10-year reduced sentence in exchange for testifying against Johnson, and was released on parole in August 2011 and lives in San Antonio.[10]

In the media

Crime author Kathryn Casey covered the Beard case in her book She Wanted it All: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and a Texas Millionaire.[11][12] Author Suzy Spencer wrote The Fortune Hunter, with a 2nd edition released in 2015.[13] The case was covered on such news documentary programs as American Justice, and Deadly Women,[14][15][16] as well as ABC's 20/20.[17]

Johnson and five other inmates published From the Big House to Your House, a cookbook that lists recipes that can be made in prison cells with ingredients from the prison commissary.[18] The biography, Celeste: The Celeste Beard Johnson Story, was released January 2019.

In 2017, Celeste's daughter, Jennifer, was wounded after a shooting while attending a Halloween party. She had to undergo more than ten surgeries but survived.[19]

gollark: Yes, but it isn't very high-bandwidth and doesn't have direct write access.
gollark: Computers are WILDLY insecure on SO MANY LEVELS.
gollark: We don't actually have neuralinks, and I don't trust them.
gollark: Ideally fix the thing where lens flexibility degrades with time.
gollark: Well, in that case, nobody knows because unsolved philosophy/neuroscience problems.

See also

Other murders in the Austin area:

References
  1. TDCJ Number: 01157250. "TDCJ Offender Details". offender.tdcj.texas.gov. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
  2. HEWITT, BILL (August 11, 2003). "Marriage, Money and Murder – Vol. 60 No. 6". PEOPLE.com. Time Inc. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
  3. "Hidden City Crime Files: Austin". Travel Channel. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
  4. "Snapped – women who kill – Celeste Beard". youtube.com. February 13, 2012. Archived from the original on April 25, 2013. Retrieved July 22, 2014.
  5. Leung, Rebecca (May 12, 2003). "Texas Tycoon's Murder Shatters Fairy-Tale Marriage". CBS News. Retrieved July 22, 2014.
  6. Krajicek, David. "Celeste Beard: fortune hunter has husband murdered â€" — Compulsively Extravagant — Crime Library on". Trutv.com. Archived from the original on April 21, 2012. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  7. "TDCJ Parole Review Information - SID Number: 05144897". offender.tdcj.texas.gov. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
  8. Krajicek, David. "Celeste Beard: fortune hunter has husband murdered â€" — Murder's Aftermath — Crime Library on". Trutv.com. Archived from the original on June 17, 2008. Retrieved December 19, 2015.
  9. "Johnson, Celeste Beard Archived December 27, 2015, at WebCite" (Archive). Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on December 28, 2015.
  10. "S.A. residents help convicted murderer bounce back into society". kens5.com. Archived from the original on June 4, 2013. Retrieved July 22, 2014.
  11. She Wanted it All, by Kathryn Casey (Avon, March 2005)
  12. "SHE WANTED IT ALL - Kathryn Casey Mystery and True Crime Author". www.kathryncasey.com. Retrieved August 5, 2017.
  13. Krajicek, David. "Celeste Beard: fortune hunter has husband murdered". Trutv.com. Archived from the original on April 19, 2012. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  14. "London's Underworld: Trailer Video on Crime and Investigation Network". Crimeandinvestigation.co.uk. Archived from the original on April 30, 2009. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  15. "DEADLY WOMEN". Investigation Discovery. August 27, 2009. Retrieved August 5, 2017.
  16. "Deadly Women: Blood For Money". TV.com. August 27, 2009. Retrieved August 5, 2017.
  17. "20/20 on ID Presents: Homicide". TVGuide.com. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
  18. Barlow, Zeke. "Incarcerated cuisine from former Camarillo resident." Ventura County Star. May 8, 2011; retrieved January 6, 2015.
  19. Autullo, Ryan. "Man awaits punishment after pleading guilty to Halloween party shooting". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved November 29, 2019.

Further reading
  • Marlow, John (2009), Evil Wives: Deadly Women Whose Crimes Knew No Limits, ISBN 978-1-84837-367-9
  • Celeste: The Celeste Beard Johnson Story by Nancy Hall and W.R. Mesiano ISBN 978-0996843751
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