GILROY
– Family members of the late Elvira Burnson, of Gilroy, are
expected to go to Santa Cruz Wednesday for the plea and sentencing
of a man charged – until recently – with her murder.
GILROY – Family members of the late Elvira Burnson, of Gilroy, are expected to go to Santa Cruz Wednesday for the plea and sentencing of a man charged – until recently – with her murder.
Until April, Robert Beckwith, 45, was charged with murder for Burnson’s Jan. 7, 2002 death in Santa Cruz. The Santa Cruz County district attorney was short on evidence against him, however, and offered a plea bargain, which Beckwith accepted.
Beckwith is expected to plead no contest to voluntary manslaughter Wednesday 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.
Marina Azecuna of Morgan Hill, Burnson’s niece and the family’s spokesperson, said she and other family members met with assistant district attorney Christine McGuire in April and were disappointed to learn that the case against Beckwith had unraveled.
“They’re really upset about what happened,” Azecuna said.
Burnson was 64 when she died. Born in El Salvador, she 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 Gilroy. She and the late Florence Trimble started an English-as-a-second-language program at their United Methodist church which flourishes today.
Santa Cruz police said Beckwith and girlfriend Paula Burnson – Elvira’s only child – strangled Elvira Burnson to death while she was visiting the apartment the couple shared near the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.
Paula Burnson and Beckwith both had histories of heroin abuse, Santa Cruz police have said. Elvira Burnson was trying to help her daughter quit drugs and leave Beckwith, members of her family have said.
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.
Later that month, police arrested Beckwith and Paula Burnson and found Elvira Burnson’s remains, burned and buried near Boulder Creek in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Beckwith claimed Paula Burnson acted alone in the killing, but he admitted he helped dispose of Elvira’s body.
Paula Burnson killed herself in her jail cell last July at the age of 32, slitting her throat with a jail-issued razor blade. Without her testimony, McGuire has said, challenging Beckwith’s alibi became much harder.
Beckwith has been free from jail since last June, a month before Paula Burnson’s suicide. His mother posted his $1 million bail.
Peter Crowley covers public safety for The Dispatch. You can reach him at 842- 6400 Ext. 286 or pc******@gi************.com.
