GILROY
– A Santa Cruz man who spent the last 17 months in jail on
suspicion of killing a Gilroy elementary school teacher in gruesome
fashion is a free man after being released on a $1 million bail
last week.
GILROY – A Santa Cruz man who spent the last 17 months in jail on suspicion of killing a Gilroy elementary school teacher in gruesome fashion is a free man after being released on a $1 million bail last week.
Robert Charles Beckwith, 44, is accused of killing his former girlfriend’s mother, Gilroyan Elvira Burnson, in January 2002.
Beckwith and Burnson’s only child, 32-year-old Paula Burnson, have been in Santa Cruz County jail since January 2002.
Elvira Burnson, 64, who worked as a substitute teacher in Gilroy and lived on Walnut Lane, was missing for 15 days before police found her charred body stuffed in a small hole near Boulder Creek in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Both Beckwith and Paula Burnson are charged with first-degree murder and are set to go to jury trial in September. They each face 25 years to life in prison.
“I’ve been prosecuting murder trials for almost 25 years, and this is the first time I’ve seen someone post a million-dollar bail,” said Christine McGuire, the assistant Santa Cruz County district attorney prosecuting the case. “(Beckwith) will go to trial a free man, which the jury will notice.”
According to McGuire, Beckwith’s mother supplied the huge bail last week through a Santa Cruz area bail bond company, meaning the mother would have had to put up at least $100,000 to the company, McGuire said.
Under state law, all prisoners detained on non-capital charges – charges without possibility of death penalty – can be eligible for bail. The base bail for first-degree murder is $500,000, although it is commonly increased to $1 million, McGuire said.
Paula Burnson remains in jail on $1 million bail, and, in an ironic twist, Beckwith is now married to a woman he began corresponding with during his incarceration.
McGuire said she has notified local law enforcement agencies and family members of Elvira Burnson of Beckwith’s release.
Beckwith’s defense attorney Shawn Gallagher could not be reached for comment.
“The significance of this is that once the trial begins the jury will see (Beckwith) in the hallway throughout the trial,” McGuire said. “They won’t see (Paula Burnson), so they might put it together that she’s in custody and he’s not.”
Prosecutors believe that Beckwith and Paula Burnson murdered Elvira Burnson on Jan. 7, 2002, at the apartment the two shared near the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.
Paula Burnson was known to have a drug problem and had been in and out of rehabilitation centers several times, and her mother threatened to stop giving her money unless she stopped living with Beckwith, McGuire said.
Elvira Burnson was last seen going to visit her daughter at her Santa Cruz apartment that had become known by local police for heroin trafficking.
Several witnesses saw Beckwith driving Elvira Burnson’s 2001 Toyota Camry toward the Boulder Creek area following Burnson’s disappearance. The witnesses said Beckwith was towing a garbage can behind the car, which police believed carried Burnson’s body wrapped in a rug.
Once they got near Boulder Creek, Beckwith and Paula Burnson burned the body and buried it, police believe.
Beckwith was arrested Jan. 12, 2002, and Burnson was arrested Jan. 17, 2002, following a suicide attempt. Elvira Burnson’s charred body was not found until Jan. 22, 2002.
Elvira Burnson worked as an elementary school teacher in San Jose’s Oak Grove School District for more than 20 years before retiring in 1999. Since her retirement she worked as a substitute teacher at elementary schools throughout the Gilroy Unified School District.
Burnson’s husband, Charlie, was a courier for The Dispatch and died in 2000. Paula Burnson was their only child.
