One of the co-defendants in the murder of Tim Clements took the stand on the fourth day of the death penalty trail against the alleged ringleader, Pablo Maldonado and, along with Chief Assistant District Attorney Anne Kurtz, reenacted the 2009 murder of the popular landscaper.
As Clements' widow Barbara put her head down and placed her hands over her ears, Beasley showed jurors - some of who stood to get a better view - how Tim Clements fell when he was first struck with a baseball bat, and how, since he attempted to get back up, Maldonado allegedly began striking him in the back of the head with a hammer.
She told jurors that after Clements had been bound by a cord with a bag tied over his head and stuffed in a closet, Maldonado told Caldwell not to get any of Clements' blood on him, because he had Hepatitis C. She said Caldwell joked and told them some of Clements blood had gotten in his eyes, saying to her "give me a kiss, baby."
Beasley's job was to clean up. She recounted how it took her 30-40 trips from the front foyer area where Clements was struck to the sink to clean up all the blood, and that she was scared when she kept hearing Clements making sounds in the closet. When his phone started ringing, she called Caldwell and Maldonado - who had left to ditch Clements' truck. She said Maldonado was yelling in the background and he and Caldwell wanted her to open the closet and see if he was alive and then take the phone. She refused, saying that not only was she scared that he was alive and would come after her, but that she also didn't want to look at him.
But that cavalier attitude didn't stop there. She said later that evening when they were driving to McDonough so Maldonado could meet a girl at a bowling alley, they passed over the bridge they had thrown Clements' body off, Maldonado said he was a "sick man" and that he had talked to Clements as they drove his body to the bridge earlier and had given him a kiss goodbye before tossing him over. He also allegedly told Caldwell and Beasley "y'all wave, there goes Boss Man, he's swimming."
Jurors also got a glimpse of Maldonado, just after his arrest in Alabama. In the three hour taped interrogation, Maldonado denies ever hurting Clements, saying that the 53-year-old was "like a father" to him and calling him his "angel." He also told investigators that he belived someone was trying to set him up.
"My conscience is clean. That man is a blessing... I am who I am today because of that man," Maldonado said on the tape. When Newton County Sheriff's Capt. Marty Roberts tells Maldonado he doesn't "believe a word you say," Maldonado shot back with "well, that's your problem."
"You have a dead man in your closet," said Roberts on the tape. "That's your problem."
The case is scheduled to continue Tuesday.