GILROY
– At the Methodist church where teacher and Gilroy resident
Elvira Burnson was active, parishioners are quietly processing
Robert Beckwith’s plea bargain. They’re trying not to be
judgmental.
GILROY – At the Methodist church where teacher and Gilroy resident Elvira Burnson was active, parishioners are quietly processing Robert Beckwith’s plea bargain. They’re trying not to be judgmental.
Until recently, Beckwith, 45, was charged with murder for Burnson’s Jan. 7, 2002 death in Santa Cruz. Now, fearing an uphill court battle, the Santa Cruz County district attorney has offered a lesser charge.
Beckwith is expected to plead no contest to voluntary manslaughter on June 9 and be sentenced to nine years in prison. He may be eligible for parole in five-and-a-half years.
If he had gone to trial and been found guilty of first-degree murder, he could have received a life sentence.
“It’s the saddest story I’ve ever been involved in,” Debbie Waller, of Gilroy, said Tuesday evening while preparing to teach an English-as-a-second-language class at the United Methodist Church at Church and Fourth streets. “Nothing good can come of this.
“That’s why we continue this (ESL) program – to honor Elvira and the people who started this program.”
Burnson and the late Florence Trimble set up the church’s ESL program a decade ago. They started with “a handful” of students, Waller said. Now, about 100 attend each class, three nights a week.
“These two little old ladies started this program that has just been a wonderful community service,” said the Rev. Alison Berry, the church’s pastor.
Since Beckwith’s plea bargain came to light, some parishioners have told Berry what they thought about it. Berry, however, shared only their broad sentiments.
“The basic reaction at the church was that people were disappointed … and saddened, because the whole situation was tragic,” Berry said.
Berry said she herself is trying to reserve judgment.
“The whole situation was tragic,” she said. “I don’t know the details of the case, so I prefer not to judge. … I didn’t know Mr. Beckwith. I only knew Elvira, and Paula a little bit. Elvira attended church. Paula didn’t, but I met Paula a few times.”
Santa Cruz police said Beckwith and girlfriend Paula Burnson – Elvira’s only child – strangled Elvira Burnson to death while she was visiting the apartment they shared near the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Witnesses said they saw Elvira enter the apartment and later saw Beckwith driving Elvira’s 2001 Toyota Corolla, dragging a trash can behind. Police believe the trash can contained Elvira’s body, wrapped in a rug.
“This guy was such a sleaze bag, but that’s why Elvira was over there trying to separate (Paula) from him,” Waller said of Beckwith in a brief glimmer of judgment.
“There’s just not a happy ending to this story.”
Police arrested Beckwith on Jan. 12, 2002 and Paula Burnson on Jan. 17, following a suicide attempt by her. On Jan. 22, they found Elvira Burnson’s remains, burned and buried near Boulder Creek in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Beckwith has said Paula Burnson acted alone in the killing, though he admitted he helped dispose of Elvira’s body.
Paula Burnson committed suicide in her jail cell last July at the age of 32, slitting her throat with a jail-issued razor blade. Assistant Santa Cruz County District Attorney Christine McGuire has said her case against Beckwith began to unravel around this time. Without Paula, there was little evidence with which to challenge Beckwith’s alibi.
As a child, Paula Burnson attended Sunday school at Gilroy’s United Methodist Church, a fact the congregation there never forgot. While she was still alive in jail, churchgoers passed around a card, signed it with good wishes and sent it to her.
“Don’t give up on her,” Trimble told Berry, according to church member and Dispatch columnist Kat Teraji.
Paula Burnson was a known heroin addict at the time of Elvira’s killing. Beckwith has admitted he and she did heroin many times.
Elvira Burnson was born in El Salvador and taught elementary school in San Jose’s Oak Grove School District for more than 20 years before retiring in 1999. Afterward, she worked as a substitute teacher at elementary schools throughout the Gilroy Unified School District.
Beckwith has been free from jail since last June, a month before Paula Burnson’s suicide. His mother posted his $1 million bail.
While in jail, Beckwith married a woman who started corresponding with him after reading media reports of the case. Judge Art Danner, who was to preside over Beckwith’s trial, conducted the wedding.
The couple was expecting a baby boy early this month, but the Santa Cruz County recorder’s office did not yet have information on whether the child has been born.
Peter Crowley covers crime and other public safety matters for The Dispatch. You can reach him at pcrowley@gilroydispatch,com or (408) 842-6400, ext. 285.
