LAKEPORT, Calif. – A man who invited two friends from Maine to come to California to work for him in his marijuana operation will stand trial for their murders.

 

Judge Richard Martin ruled Friday that 30-year-old Robby Alan Beasley will stand trial for the shooting deaths of former Augusta residents Yvette Maddox, 40, and her husband, Frank Maddox, on the side of a remote road near Lower Lake, Calif., on Jan. 22, 2010.

 

Beasley received the news while sitting alongside his defense attorney, Stephen Carter.

 

Throughout the proceedings Beasley – dressed in a black and white striped jail jumpsuit – has looked stern-faced, with few changes in his expression.

 

The ruling came one day short of the one-year anniversary of the killings.

 

At the Friday morning hearing in the court's Lakeport division, Martin found there was sufficient evidence to hold Beasley to answer to two counts of murder, as well as a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

 

He said he was not required to make a finding at this time on Beasley's previous felony convictions in Maine.

 

The judge also ruled there was evidence showing that Beasley committed the crimes with the intent to inflict great bodily injury on the victims, having shot Frank Maddox first in the leg and then in the head, and shooting him in the head a second time after it appeared he was still alive.

 

Likewise, Martin noted that Yvette Maddox was shot once in the head, with Beasley allegedly shooting her a second time when she, like her husband, showed signs of life.

 

Martin's decision came after three days of testimony from several witnesses, including Elijah Bae McKay, Beasley's 28-year-old friend and co-defendant in the case.

 

McKay, like Beasley, came to the West Coast from Maine, and originally invited Beasley to come to California to work for him growing marijuana.

 

The Maddoxes' shootings occurred at a turnout on the side of Morgan Valley Road outside of Lower Lake, according to McKay's statements on the stand.

 

Beasley – who had allegedly asked the Maddoxes to drive him to the airport, having told them that his grandmother had died – is alleged to have drug their bodies off the road and down an embankment, where he shot them each a final time, McKay testified.

 

Prosecutor Art Grothe on Friday morning called McKay's two-hour testimony on Tuesday “very comprehensive.”

 

Grothe said McKay's statements corroborated and confirmed several items of physical evidence, including the couple's manner of death and the 9 millimeter handgun used. McKay had given Beasley the gun to protect himself after the Clearlake apartment where Beasley had an indoor marijuana grow was burglarized and several pounds of marijuana were stolen.

 

Grothe said cell phone calls and texts submitted by investigators also supported the allegations against Beasley, and an examination of Beasley's computer yielded evidence of an Internet search for guns as well as his marijuana growing activities.

 

One e-mail message Beasley sent a friend warned to watch out for the Maddoxes, which Grothe said was evidence of Beasley's belief that the couple had stolen marijuana from him.

 

That belief, Grothe had argued on Thursday, had been the “final push” to kill the couple, who he said were already causing concern for Beasley and McKay's marijuana growing and sales activities.

 

In addition to witness and investigator statements and cell phone records, Grothe said a Wal-Mart surveillance camera showed Beasley on the day after the murder, purchasing cell phones – to replace the cell phones McKay testified to burning, along with Beasley's blood-covered clothes, the previous night – as well as Armor All wipes.

 

The prosecution alleges the wipes were used on the couples' pickup, which Beasley and McKay moved from Lower Lake to a remote area near Middletown on Jan. 23, the day following the murders.

 

Carter offered no arguments against the findings Friday.

 

Beasley will appear before Judge Stephen Hedstrom in Lake County Superior Court's Clearlake division on the morning of Feb. 8 for an arraignment on the charges in preparation for trial.

 

On Martin's order, Beasley will continue to be held without bail in the Lake County Jail in Lakeport.

 

Judge reviews hearsay evidence to be stricken

 

At the start of the court session, before issuing his holding order for Beasley's trial, Judge Martin went over witness testimony involving hearsay statements by the Maddoxes that Carter had made a motion to exclude earlier in the proceedings.

 

Martin had indicated Thursday that he would grant Carter's motion based on the importance of the confrontation clause, which allows a defendant to confront and cross-examine his accusers.

 

Grothe had argued that the testimony should be admitted under a new California evidence code that allows hearsay evidence to be used when a defendant has attempted to procure a witness' absence, which he said Beasley had done by killing the couple and hiding their bodies.

 

Martin reviewed transcripts provided by the two court reporters who worked during the preliminary hearing in deciding which testimony to exclude from consideration.

 

On Tuesday, Elvin Sikes and Tyreshia Celestin-Willis were the hearing's first two witnesses. Both had been friends of the couple, with Sikes stating he had taken them in and allowed them to live with him in December 2009.

 

As to Sikes' statements about Yvette Maddox approaching him to ask for a place to stay, “The court is not going to exclude that,” said Martin.

 

But he did go on to strike Sikes' testimony about the couple mailing items to Maine, statements he siad they made about driving Beasley to the airport, his conversation with them in which he asked if they had stolen marijuana and Frank Maddox's request to wash his truck in Sikes' driveway before leaving to drive to the airport.

 

Martin admitted Sikes' statements about knowing the couples' nicknames and watching Frank Maddox wash his truck, as well as his identification of their vehicle.

 

He disallowed Carter's lengthy cross-examination of Sikes, which touched on the hearsay evidence.

 

“We have no dispute with that,” said Grothe.

 

Sikes' statements telling the couple not to drive Beasley to the airport were to be stricken, Martin added.

 

Regarding Celestin-Willis' testimony, her statements in which she recounted Yvette Maddox saying Beasley had threatened her will not be admitted, said Martin. Also stricken was testimony regarding an argument between Yvette Maddox and Beasley over issues including a laptop, and Carter's cross-examination.

 

Allowed for consideration are Celestin-Willis' recollections of meeting the couple and her knowledge of them being married, Martin said.

 

Much of the testimony of three witnesses from Maine who appeared on Thursday will not be considered in the case, Martin ruled.

 

That includes the statements regarding the couple given by Starr Larrabee, Yvette Maddox's daughter Yvette Colon and Maria Carrion, he said, although Martin allowed Carrion's testimony about being a friend of Yvette Maddox's.

 

Martin said that, while not all of the testimony was being considered in his decision to hold Beasley due to its hearsay nature, all of it would remain in the court's final transcript, which he said would enable a higher court to review it later if necessary.

 

With the ruling to go forward now made, Grothe said Friday he and District Attorney Don Anderson will sit down and decide whether the case will be handled as a death penalty prosecution or another option, such as life without the possibility of parole.

 

Grothe said he doesn't have a time frame for when that decision will be made but indicated it will have to take place well in advance of McKay's preliminary hearing, the date for which is expected to be set at an April 5 hearing.

 

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