GILROY
– Robert Beckwith was sentenced to nine years in prison
Wednesday for participating in the murder of Gilroy resident Elvira
Burnson, a retired elementary school teacher.
GILROY – Robert Beckwith was sentenced to nine years in prison Wednesday for participating in the murder of Gilroy resident Elvira Burnson, a retired elementary school teacher.
In a Santa Cruz courtroom afternoon, Beckwith, 45, pleaded no contest to a voluntary manslaughter, as agreed upon in an April plea bargain, and was sentenced.
Three of Burnson’s relatives spoke at the sentencing hearing, expressing anger at Beckwith and recalling Burnson’s charitable deeds.
State corrections officers took Beckwith into custody and will soon take him to San Quentin State Prison, where he will be evaluated then assigned to a maximum security prison to serve out the rest of his term. He may be eligible for parole in five-and-a-half years.
If Beckwith – who had been free on $1 million bail since last June, courtesy of his mother – had gone to trial and been found guilty of first-degree murder, as he was originally charged, he could have received a life sentence. Beckwith, however, claimed his then-girlfriend, Paula Burnson – Elvira’s only child – acted alone in killing Elvira. He admitted, however, that he helped dispose of the body.
Santa Cruz police said Beckwith and Paula Burnson strangled the 64-year-old Elvira to death on Jan. 7, 2002 while she was visiting the apartment the couple shared near the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
Witnesses said they saw Elvira Burnson enter the apartment and later saw Beckwith driving her 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.
Paula Burnson killed herself in her jail cell last July at the age of 32, slitting her throat with a jail-issued razor.
The county’s case against Beckwith began to unravel at this point, McGuire said.
“When she committed suicide, Mr. Beckwith then points the finger at that empty chair, and she’s not able to defend herself,” the prosecutor said Wednesday.
McGuire added that two new pieces of evidence supporting Beckwith’s alibi came to light after the suicide. A friend of Beckwith’s and a federal postal worker, said Paula Burnson confessed she had killed her mother. The witness said the couple asked him to help dispose of the body, but he refused.
“Whether you believe him or not, the problem is, that information now goes before a jury,” McGuire said.
Also, Paula Burnson’s psychiatric records were opened, revealing angry statements about her mother and their history of verbal and physical abuse.
On top of that, a U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on March 1 prohibited McGuire from using some evidence against Beckwith.
Even without these setbacks, McGuire said convicting Beckwith would have been difficult since she had no witnesses to the killing and Beckwith never confessed, even after a three-day interview by police.
