All language subtitles for 5ghghtfhtfhtf

It was
a pretty gruesome scene.

The daughter told me that

the bad man
was attacking Mommy.

And you're thinking,

"Holy crap, she's a witness."

You speak to the husband,

and he's got no blood
on his clothing.

He's got no physical injuries,
which surely he would have had,

the way the crime scene looks.

His alibi was solid, but we
couldn't get rid of the thought

that somehow he's involved.

There were calls to someone
there in the morning,

calls in the afternoon.

They were texting.

We learned
that he's got money trouble,

that he's been fired
a couple of times for stealing.

But it was all
circumstantial evidence.

At this point in time,
we don't know

who killed Kelley Clayton.

In America, we're the
first line of defense.

drug busts, serial killers,
armed robbers,

predators of every kind.

We take them off the streets.

People love telling stories
about us.

They don't know
the half of it.

We save that for when
we're talking cop to cop.

This is "PD True."

You've got a real mystery
on your hands.

Yeah.
Who killed Kelley Clayton?

Right, because her husband,
he's got a solid alibi, right?

He's got witnesses saying
he's with them during the time

that you believe
that the murder happened.

Everything eliminates Tom
from the picture at this point.

He's got no blood
on his clothing.

He's got no physical injuries,
which surely he would have had,

the way the crime scene looks.

And that's all supported
by technology.

Absolutely.
So I did Kelley's phone.

I could see, you know,
her last text messages,

but nothing to indicate
that she had

some other relationship,
nothing between her

and Tom that would make me
think of domestic violence.

But with time,
there's a feeling

that something's
not quite right here.

He's saying that he has
a solid alibi

and he has GPS in his truck.

So then we found out
how we could get

the GPS information
from Servpro

to verify the truck's movement.

I went down to Servpro
to review the truck data.

So it shows you
kind of what time

Tom left the poker game
with the Millers.

Mm-hmm.

And then it shows you
what time he came back.

- Right.
- But what does that tell you?

We narrowed it down
to about a 15-minute window

when we couldn't account
for where Tom was.

Well, he's probably driving
to his own home.

But even in 15 minutes,
you couldn't, you know,

drive to your home,
kill your wife,

change all your clothes,
be in pristine condition,

get your kids over
to the neighbor's house.

There just wasn't--
his alibi was solid.

Wow.

And it verified what we knew
from the witnesses...

Mm-hmm.

What we knew
from the Millers.

I'm thinking,
"What are we missing?"

What haven't we
figured out yet?

What signs and evidence
have we not recovered yet?

So what now?
What happens?

One interesting fact was
that Lucky Miller

from the poker game
calls the state police.

And she says
she's up in the shower,

and she's thinking,
and she says, "Oh, my goodness,

Thomas used my phone to place
a call during the poker game."

- This is her cell phone?
- This is her cell phone.

Does Tom not have
his own cell phone?

He had his own cell phone.

He said his phone
was in the truck.

Listen,
maybe it is plausible.

Maybe his battery went dead,

or maybe he didn't
have service, right?

There's reasons for that.

But-- but who does he call?

Like, what do the records--

when you finally get
those records back,

who does he make that call to?

We know
that he placed a call

from Lucky Miller's phone
at 10:53.

He calls a guy named
Michael Beard.

So what do you come
to learn about him?

That he's been fired
a couple of times for stealing.

He's been involved
with the criminal justice

system in South Carolina.

Beard had worked at Servpro.

Really?

He had been fired, I think,
on September 17

in the week
before the homicide.

They interviewed him
initially

when they heard about
the Lucky Miller phone call.

He was very cooperative,
you know,

claimed to have no ill will
towards Tom or Kelley.

And he gave consent
for his phone.

I picked it up at
the sheriff's department.

And they're like, "Eh,
we don't think he's involved,

"so when you get around
to this phone, take a look."

But I'm like,
"I got to get on this today."

So I looked at it.

And when I initially
populate the report,

there's a lot
of deleted material,

deleted text messages.

Initially,
I didn't see the phone call.

He had deleted that.

But the one thing I did see
was some powering events.

So as I'm looking at
the timeline of the phone,

I can see when the phone
is powered on and powered off.

And there's a portion
of time there

when I know Kelley
made her last text message,

and I know when Tom
made that 911 call.

And within that time frame,

I have Michael Beard
powering his phone off...

And then back on afterwards.

So I was like, "Ah, man,
I don't know if it is anything,

but I better let someone know."
- Right.

So they go pick up
Michael Beard.

They bring him in.

And, separately,
they interview his girlfriend.

Correct.

Michael Beard was known
to the state police.

They know him
from previous narcotic work.

So they come in
to chat with him...

And they get a feeling

that something's
not quite right here.

But also, we learn that
Michael Beard has been fired

from both businesses
that Thomas

was an owner
or participating in.

Servpro and a business
called Paul Davis.

Yes.

We learned that
he's got money trouble,

that he's behind on his rent.

- Who's his landlord?
- Thomas Clayton.

So Thomas fires him,
more than once, apparently.

He worked for him
in two different companies.

Mm-hmm.

But he rents him
an apartment?

Yes.

And now, of course,
he can't pay his rent

because he got fired.
- Correct.

- And he's a thief.
- And he's a thief, yep.

And this is who Tom
is calling

shortly before
his wife is murdered?

Right.

We couldn't get rid of the
thought that Michael Beard,

somehow he's involved.

There's too much.
- Right.

So we were looking at
not only the physical devices,

the cell phones--

doing the downloads
from those--

but we also had
the cell phone records

from the service providers,
which provided

thousands of points of data

to be able to connect Beard
to Clayton.

We could see patterns
of behavior

and get some of
those details because

even the messages were cryptic.

So we could see that there was
a previous occasion

when Tom Clayton
was out of town

that Beard
powers his phone off,

goes out to Clayton.
- He goes to the house.

And then on his way back,
sends a text message,

"Call me when you can"
to Tom Clayton.

It's only a few days
before the homicide occurred.

In the week
before the homicide,

before the murder,
Beard and Clayton

were communicating.

There were calls
in the morning,

calls in the afternoon.

They were texting.

Beard owed Clayton rent,
but it didn't seem to be

this is the guy
that was just fired.

There was something going on
between the two of them.

So around noon of the 28th,
before the murder,

Thomas Clayton
walked into a gas station.

And he says, "Hey,
I need to use your phone

"'cause something's wrong.

I'm not getting
good cell coverage."

But we know his phone
is on and working because

we can see that from the data.

And the call that he made
from M&M Auto,

he places it to Michael Beard.

I'm thinking,
"What's going on here?"

Meanwhile,
Beard's girlfriend, Holly,

was being questioned
by another investigator

with the state police.

She tells them that,
"Hey, you know,

we were hard up for money.
We were gonna get evicted."

He said, you know,
"What-- what happened?"

And during that time,
she reveals

that there was an agreement

between Tom and Beard

to kill Kelley.

Wow.

Beard's girlfriend,
she was saying that this--

he did this for $10,000.

This was a murder for hire.

What's your initial sense
of that?

Certainly not the first time
that a spouse

has looked to murder his wife
to get her out of the picture.

No, it's one of those
pulling the threads.

In subsequent interviews
with persons

that Tom had
had affairs with...

Hold on,
so you actually learn

that Tom is having
extramarital affairs, plural,

more than one?
- Yes.

Yeah, he had several of them.

When I look at it,
he's just so self-absorbed.

He's the only person
he cares about, right?

He's thrown out
a thousand lines

and getting 10 bites.
- And again, not a big town.

No, no.

People kind of
know each other.

People talk.
- Yep.

A lot of them would just say,
"Well, that's just Tom.

He hits on everyone, right?"

- He hits on everyone?
- Yeah.

He made disparaging comments
about his wife to these women.

- But--
- Doesn't mean he's a murderer.

Right.

But these women,
what's he telling them?

He made the statement
more than one time

that he couldn't afford
a divorce.

I can't leave my wife
for you because

my wife will clear me out?
- Yeah.

Well, he was concerned
with money.

And he had increased
the life insurance policies.

Doubled it.

Yeah, she had
a million-dollar policy.

But first, we had to prove
Beard actually did the murder.

So we go back
to the crime scene.

Of significance
was DNA evidence

recovered from the house.
- Yeah.

There was a blood--

it was a smear.
- Yeah, on the door.

On the door.

And there were drops, remember?
- Yep.

There were drops
all the way down.

When the state police
analyzed that,

they found the blood
was consistent with

Kelley Clayton's profile,

but it was also consistent
with Michael Beard.

- Wow, so that is significant.
- The DNA put him upstairs.

Yeah.

But when you spoke to him,
he had said that

he had done work
for them before.

He'd been to the house before, right?

So just the mere presence
of his DNA, you know,

at their house is certainly
not gonna tie him

to the homicide.
- Right.

But then we found,
in a swamp area,

clothing, which had
been there for a while.

We thought Beard
had tossed his clothing.

They were sent to the lab,
and presence of blood,

and there was an ownership DNA
of Michael Beard.

So it was all consistent.

Once the information comes in
to Investigator Lambert,

he's got a previous
relationship with Michael.

He's got a good rapport.

He walks in, and he says,
"Michael, we know.

$10,000,
that's what this is about."

Then when the chin
goes to the chest,

we're about to give it all up.

He looks down, and then
he gives a full confession.

He gives up
when he committed the murder,

that Tom was gonna pay him
for it.

It was a murder for hire.

But Kelley's daughter,
she gives you

a description of what
this person looked like.

Right, and this person looks
very different than him.

But obviously, he had on
a mask, dark clothes.

So the clothing
was all consistent

with the Beard story.

But Michael Beard
recants his confession.

- Yes.
- Yes.

And then he lies about where
the murder weapon was tossed.

Yeah, but after trial
and error, trial and error,

he finally gives up
where it actually is.

And the next morning,
we go out, do a grid search.

Members of our agency,
members of the state police,

and find the murder weapon
within ten minutes.

What was the murder weapon?

So it was
a broken sledgehammer handle.

It's a maul handle--
that's what they call it--

made of fiberglass.

In his confession,
he gives up

where the keys to the house are
that he used to get in.

He had tossed them
in a swamp area.

And all of those
were recovered.

So we all looked
at each other,

and we said, "My God,
this corroborates everything.

He's arrested for murder.

Michael Beard of Elmira
was arrested Friday night.

Police believe Beard
was involved

in causing the death of Kelley
in her home last week.

Now we have Beard,
who's given us

the physical evidence,
but he's still

not all that credible
because of who he is.

Obviously, that was our
first step towards justice,

but we knew there was
a lot to do

continuing the investigation
of the role of Thomas Clayton.

We thought we knew
what had happened

based upon all that we had,

but we needed something else
to prove it.

So we know that he's having
multiple affairs

and that, you know,
these women have said

that he's told them
that he can't leave Kelley

because she's
gonna clean him out.

What else do we have here?

So are you able
to get some surveillance video

from Servpro as well?

We had a video from--

not Servpro so much as
the Latta Brook Storage

right next to Servpro.

And it showed a red Dodge Ram
traveling a certain way

and arriving at Servpro
the evening of the murder.

And then shortly after
it arrives at Servpro,

that red Dodge Ram leaves.

Within a few seconds later,

it's followed
by a Servpro vehicle.

Cell phone data showed
that the Servpro vehicle

went to
a gymnastics place where...

Mm-hmm, Tom's daughter
was taking gymnastics.

Daughter was performing,
whereas the other truck was--

went back to Beard's residence.

So...
- The Dodge Ram?

Right, the Dodge Ram.

Puts them together that day.

So that put
the two of them together

right before the murder.

It also showed,
at about 1:00 in the morning,

after the crime,
a truck goes by.

And it's dark out,
but you can see

a truck goes by toward Servpro,
and within a few minutes later,

you see someone on a bicycle...
- Coming back.

Coming back.

It's a bike that
Tom Clayton bought Beard.

- Right.
- Yeah.

Then something comes up where
the attorney wants to retrieve.

An attorney that's
representing Tom Clayton

comes forward...

and said, "Hey, there's a bag,

and we'd like to retrieve that,
if that's OK."

It's in a truck
that Tom had possessed.

What's in the bag?

About $100,000 in cash,
Tom's passport,

and the kids' passports.

But not Kelley's passport?

Not Kelley's passport.

What are you thinking when
you find out this information?

I'm thinking he had it
in order to take the kids

and leave the country.

In my mind,
at this point, I mean,

you've got all these pieces
now, and certainly this--

this screams guilt.

There's a lot of--

there's a lot of smoke
right now.

But Tom was the guy.

We arrested Thomas Clayton
for murder.

But you've
still got a problem.

There's no physical evidence
connecting him to the crime.

He's actually granted bail.
- Yes.

Which is also pretty unusual
in a murder case.

Yes.

I felt so much stress
because of the kids.

If we don't get
this thing right,

he's gonna get those kids back.

I call Weeden the quarterback
or the coach

that really whipped us
into shape and made it happen.

We had a team that was willing
to give all of their time,

you know, through
holidays and weekends.

So now, as you're preparing
for trial against Tom,

Michael Beard goes to trial.

You know,
he initially confesses.

He recants.
- Mm-hmm.

What's the outcome
of that case?

He's found
guilty as charged,

murder in the first degree,

also murder in
the second degree.

Despite pleading
his innocence to the judge,

Michael Beard was sentenced
to spend

the rest of his life in prison.

It feels good for me to give
the family some relief,

but obviously,
we have round two coming up.

Mr. Clayton is--
is adamant that he is

not guilty of these offenses.

He did not kill his wife.

He didn't hire anybody
to kill his wife.

It was all circumstantial,

but it was strong
circumstantial evidence.

One thing we like about
circumstantial evidence,

it doesn't lie.

All of these things
come together with this call

to Michael Beard.

You add into that Tom's
unsolicited volunteering

of an alibi.
- Correct.

Right?

No, I was at a poker game,
and I got GPS.

Yes.

And the surveillance video
as well.

Yes.

After more than 75 witnesses
and 500 pieces of evidence,

the jury began deliberating
yesterday around 10:30 a.m.

After seven weeks of trial,
Clayton's jury deliberated.

We went home, came back.

I think we had a verdict
within an hour the next day.

Thomas Clayton
was found guilty as charged.

I told my sister
from the night

she was murdered that we would
not stop fighting for her.

We would not stop fighting
for justice for her.

But that quick turnaround
on the jury, I think,

really illustrates how strong
a case you put together.

You know, if this crime
had been committed

20 years ago,
perhaps he would have

gotten away with it.

Fortunately, we had
all this digital evidence.

We had all this GPS evidence.

We had all this
modern technology.

They have
a formal adoption ceremony

with the judge that presided
over both murder trials.

He came back out of retirement
in order to do that.

Oh.

And they become formally
adopted and live with--

with their parents,

and they'll tell you
that they're their parents.

And you were there
for that ceremony as well?

I was.
I was.

In the middle of summer,
I went by.

The younger child came out.

Kim says, "He doesn't know
anything about this."

No, he was three.

He doesn't know who you are,
and we kept it that way.

Yeah.

Every time I see them,
they look like

they're doing better.

I think Kim's doing
a good job trying

to shield them
because, you know,

the father killed the mother.
- Yeah.

- They lost both parents.
- Yes.

It was a lot of dedication,
a lot of time, a lot of stress,

but in the end,
we got, you know...

Justice.

Justice for
those children, yeah,

and their family, for sure.