Mugshots: Beth Carpenter | Forensic Files

Beth Carpenter a young Connecticut lawyer on a fast track to fame we all admired her and looked up to her and
wanted to be like her and it's scary to think that one's mistake with the wrong person can affect your life forever the
one mistake was murder the wrong person was her boss and lover Heyman kleene he really spun a web and Beth Carpenter got
caught in his web Beth Carpenter turned to him for help she was fighting her brother-in-law law for custody of her
niece Beth said I need you to take care of a problem for me the court systems aren't working and uh she wanted to have
him killed and is all I could think of at that time was Revenge straight Revenge I hate Beth for taking my best
friend next on Mugshots Beth Carpenter fatal [Music] betrayal [Music] [Music] 19 and in June of
1999 a flight from Ireland carried a prisoner back to the United States after an extradition battle that lasted nearly
2 years Beth Carpenter was arrested handcuffed and brought back to Connecticut to face murder charges
Carpenter had been a rising legal star in the small Connecticut Village and her arrest came as a shock to the people of
old sa Brook her trial with disclosures of wild sex parties rampant drug use and
and a murder conspiracy plot would forever change the landscape of this picturesque Eastern Connecticut Shore
toown immediately everyone wanted to know how this upper middle class well-educated woman became a murder
suspect Beth Carpenter Story begins in March of 1994 on I95 I got a call that night for an
accident victim laying in the road and I came up the wrong side of the road because I wanted to stop traffic as I
came [Music] out I pulled up about up here in the center of the roadway and right here was
uh the victim Laying across this right hand lane of the highway 28-year-old Anson Buzz Clinton III had been shot
five times I wasn't shocked when I found out that it was Buzz Buzz was the type of guy that made a lot of enemies while
at the the crime scene that evening officer Joseph Dunn recalled a telephone conversation he had had with a victim
several months earlier previous to the actual murder he had called me about getting a restraining order against his
father-in-law because he felt that he was in danger of some sort of uh physical violence from his father-in-law
that there was that much anger between the two uh over his wife and his wife's daughter police wed off the area and
traffic backed up on the highway one of those caught in the traffic jam that evening was D Clinton
the victim's mother who was on her way to a nearby mall to shop it was a really nice warm night so
a guy walked by and I said when you find out what happened up there would you let
me know and he came back and he said some guy is shot run over or both M so to my right women were walking
by to see what was what was going on up there and the next thought that popped into my head was the family of this dead
man probably wouldn't appreciate people gawking at him D Clinton returned home and it wasn't until hours later that she
realized why she had been delayed that evening next phone call I get was my girlfriend down the road Ruth who said D
the police are here looking for buzs and I said that's what I knew I said oh my God Buzz is
dead the night of the murder investigators of the Connecticut State Police started interviewing the victim's
family well the police did their interrogation they separated of course everybody and getting information from
each individual person on the case there was no identification necessary one of the eastline police knew my son and had
identified him the next morning the murder was reported on TV turn on the TV about 5:30 a.m. and uh it there's uh
something on the TV about somebody being murdered at the uh the ramp on exit 72 and Buzz Clinton I I was I oh my God
at first investigators thought that the murder was drug related but the victim's
father didn't buy that and we kept telling them it was none of this this was not the scenario just by the points
of the evidence of the night that had happened that wasn't the case in our own heart we
knew that the investigation was going to interf family conflict the interf family
conflict was between the victim Buzz his wife Kim and Kim's family over custody and visitation rights for Kim's
three-year-old daughter Rebecca I had met buzz in a couple of domestic situations previously involving his wife
and his wife's family while the investigators were doing their initial rounds of interviews
the clintons were arranging for the funeral services of their son we buried him on St Patrick's Day I stood there my
knees buckled my knees buckled I couldn't believe it in looking at him I can remember putting my hand on his
chest at that point anger came over me and is all I could think of at that time was
Revenge straight revenge and Saturday morning I woke up in bed in absolute peace total total peace
and all of a sudden I started a guttural cry a guttural pain worse than any labor
pain in the world well my mother came to visit me in Kentucky and um she said I have to tell you something
and she'd been there a week and didn't tell me until you know the day before she left and she said it's about buzz
and um I asked what he did and you know is he in a fight with Kim and she started crying and I knew that he was
gone and I ran out the door I still cannot come to grips with him being gone this is the first time
I've even talked about buz since he's been gone in May of 1994 a couple of months
after the murder the investigators got their first big break in the case we received a phone call from a woman who
identified herself as uh when and Kathy white Kathy explained that she was the girlfriend of a person who had some
information on who might have committed this [Music] Murder She identified her boyfriend
Joseph Fremont and his friend Mark depre as suspects the way she explained it to
me she says I've done a lot of bad things in my life but I can't be a part of this this bothers me and this bothers
me a lot so she brought out the fact that uh her boyfriend and her friend of his by the name of mar de
pre and were planning to do some sort of murder a check on Fremont and depre revealed that both men had arrest
records and depre was known to the narcotics unit of the Connecticut State Police as a drug informant our first uh
concern was to set up an interview with Mark de pre um we did this by listening the help
of one of our narcotics uh detectives by the name of Chad Harris because he was familiar with
Mark uh he had used him as an informant in the past and Mark agreed to meet with
him uh thinking that he was going there for some sort of drug information on the
day of the meeting detective Chad Harris drove to the designated location followed by Sergeant Turner and his
partner it wasn't until Dee arrived that he learned from this undercover officer
the real purpose of the meeting he asked what this interview was about and we told him that it was about the murder
that occurred on the rocky NE connector uh back in March at that point he became
a little nervous and said that he wanted to contact his attorney I handed him a cell phone and he uh uh tried to reach
one I asked him who he was calling he said he was trying to contact attorney hymon Klein because he couldn't reach Mr
Klein on the phone he decided that uh he didn't want to talk with us any further
but instead of leaving the scene depre got into detective Harris's car and admitted to him what he would not reveal
to Sergeant Turner he indicated detective Harris that he did have some information on the crime and that he
himself was somewhat involved in it and at that point we knew we had one of the plays one of the main players in the in
the case they also had the name hymon Klein to check out and that name would lead them to Beth
Carpenter next on mug shots Beth Carpenter Prime Suspect Beth Carpenter was an unlikely
murder suspect she grew up a few miles from the Long Island Sound near Old sa Brook Connecticut her mother Cynthia has
found memories of her daughter as a beautiful little girl with red hair and blue eyes a picture perfect child as a
child she was very quiet very quiet um stayed at home a lot uh enjoyed doing crafts and knitting and crocheting and
things like that she was very involved in her activities in school she was a good student say she was terribly social
but you know she had her small group of friends she was just um a child that you
just couldn't help but like you know she was just that we used to laugh at her she was funny um but so we did spend a
lot of time together and I was very close with Beth the Carpenters were a close-knit family there were
CrossCountry trips visits to Disney World our families were vacation together one year we rented a winnabago
like a 30ft winnabago and the two families went to Disney World so there were 10 of us in this Winne Bago but the
kids were little and we just had a great time Happy Thanksgiving and he says I made join here together for this family
gathering for Thanksgiving Christmas and other holidays there were family gatherings of Aunts Uncles and cousins
Beth took a trip to Europe with her brother Richard in the Summer She sailed on the Long Island Sound it all seemed
so idyllic and it was until Beth began thinking about college and talking about leaving home her mother wanted Beth to
go to the University of Connecticut she didn't want to go to Yukon although I thought uton was a very good school I
because she was so quiet and introverted and hadn't ever really been away from home I thought a better choice she was
only 17 when she went to college would be some place closer to home but she said no she would she would like to you
know get into the big city the big city Beth Carpenter chose was Washington DC she went to George
Washington University at first of course she was very homesick and so forth but she had two very good roommates um and
they took her under their wing they were from New York and they were a lot more sophisticated than she was and then she
began to come out a little bit and start dating and so forth under their guidance
Beth Carpenter was considered to be someone very special by her younger cousins a role model to look up to and
emulate I always thought wow you know she's just an amaz I always thought she was so amazing and I always looked up to
her and as we got older when she first started working we started kind of fostering our relationship then and um
we built off that and we've always been been pretty close now as adults I always
admired her I mean my mom would tell stories of these fascinating jobs that she found and things that she did I
always looked up to her after graduating from college Beth Carpenter was planning
to go to medical school but her friends were going off to law school and so did she Beth went to Catholic University law
school um she lived in Washington during that time didn't see too much of her she
was very very busy I do remember you know her graduating from law school um there was was a time there when she was
in college where we didn't see very much of her only on the holidays obviously cuz she was away Beth Carpenter
graduated from Law School in 1990 this family Thanksgiving Video was shot the year Beth received her law
degree it is also her birthday party to after getting her law degree Beth Carpenter took time off to travel and
then prepared for three bar exams but she was very happy to be done with law school she went to uh California and uh
studied with some friends and she passed the New York Washington and Connecticut
State Bar 1992 was a tough year for young lawyers looking for work in Connecticut but one day Beth Carpenter
walked into the New London branch office of hmon Klein's law firm and met kleene
it was a meeting that would change the course of Beth's life her career as a lawyer took off so did a dangerous
relationship with her boss he was a a sexual perverted man he was a over sexed individual he went through women uh like
socks Hugh Keefe and Tara Knight became Beth Carpenter's defense attorneys and are familiar with the intimate details
of her case she was intelligent she was beautiful she was educated and she fell for this guy and uh that was the
beginning of the road for trouble for her next on Mugshots the the office love affair
leads two lawyers down a path to murder this is Yankee territory old sa Brook Connecticut home of stately Mansions
yacht clubs private jets and some of the richest people in America hmon Klein was
one of their lawyers he had made his fortune in the 1980s as a real estate lawyer catering to the needs of the
local Elite a Katherine heurn lives nearby it's a it's a beautiful affluent area and uh and hymon Klein came from
that area at one point kleene couldn't have picked a better place or time to get rich and Powerful he was a man with
the right connections and a can do reputation he had everything including a secret life that would soon ins snare
Beth Carpenter she walked into his office the job was hers Beth loved working with
hymon Klein soon Carpenter and kleene were inseparable despite kleene being married
Beth brought him home to meet her mother they stopped by they had been working that day and we sat down talk for a
while and and um he happened to mention that he likes Scrabble I said I play Scrabble so we played a game of
Scrabble night Conway and sarahy Tara Knight one of Beth Carpenters lawyers doesn't have much good to say about her
client's boss hmon Klein was married four or five times um he engaged in crazy sexual escapades uh with his
latest wife and and earlier wives we're talking he ran the gamut from naaja to uh to voyerism he had a cocaine
addiction um and he was a prolific Drinker he was also engaging and charming and manipulative and he spun a
web and Beth Carpenter got trapped in it hymon Klein seemed to be Charming Beth's
mother as well as Beth another time he came by with his his daughter was with him I truthfully I don't remember why
his daughter was with him I guess I was blind to the whole thing according to her mother hmon Klein didn't seem to be
Beth Carpenter's type so she never thought they were anything but colleagues I mean maybe now looking back
I should have thought she this is sort of strange but it it would never have entered my
mind that they would be involved I didn't find him to be a very attractive man I saw him as her Mentor I
didn't see him in any other role I was oblivious to any relationship that they had their Affair began on a business
trip to Naples Florida at the time hmon Klein was 52 and married to his fourth wife he had teenage children at home
Beth Carpenter was 29 and involved in a long-term relationship of her own none of that seemed to matter to either one
of them according to court records it was during the time of Beth Carpenter's passionate love affair with hmon Klein
that she started telling her lover about concern she had for the welfare of her sister Kim's little daughter
rebeccaa we were away for the weekend with Rebecca Kim was at home and she had gone out one night with some friends and
she had met Buzz there he was a male dancer that's when the relationship began Kim had then moved out of her
parents' home and in with her new boyfriend Buzz Clinton the carpenter family was worried about what would
happen to Rebecca once she met Buzz um she never came back to our house after that for a period of four to 6
weeks when she didn't arrive home I went to stop and shop where she worked and asked her you know what's going on can I
at least have a number where I can reach you and she wouldn't give me any place actually that she could be reached at
and she wouldn't come home because of Kim's refusal to let her mother know her whereabouts the carpenter family began
Court proceedings to get custody of Rebecca that is basically what started the whole action the legal action um in
terms of uh getting guardianship of Rebecca Kim had a very different childhood than her sister Beth where
Beth excelled in school Kim suffered from learning disabilities she had no hope of going to
college she worked at minimum wage jobs he had brought Kim and introduced me to her
and she just didn't seem like the type of person that buzz was with normally um I don't know what it was about her but
it just didn't fit it didn't seem right Kim did not have a history of good relationships her first husband was in
jail so um you know and uh she had she had divorced him while he was in jail so I was a little concerned now
that she had a child how this was going to play out it played out in the form of a
bitter Family Feud for custody of Rebecca the Carpenters refused to give up the struggle even when they kept
losing in court there were even allegations of sexual abuse and they tried everything in them power to gain
custody of Rebecca and take her away from Kim some of the things that uh we learned through the investigation were
that they hired a private investigator to follow anen Clinton around to see if he he was in fact sexually abusing the
child and private investigator reported back that in fact no he didn't see anything uh bad going on there at all it
seemed to be a very normal relationship according to court records as the struggle for the girl's custody
intensified Beth Carpenter started complaining to heon Klein about the court system Beth continually complained
to him about how the uh she was going through custody battles and both uh Beth and uh the family her family uh became
very attached and they didn't want to lose custody off her next on Mugshots a custody battle two hired Hitmen and a
plot to [Music] kill this is Beth Carpenter's sister's wedding the Bride In This Home Video is
Kim Carpenter the groom Buzz Clinton the video was shot in the Clinton home honor and chy honor Andy by
the hand of God do us by the hand of God do us sorry also present at the wedding
was Kim's then three-year-old daughter Rebecca from a previous relationship by then Kim had been granted custody of her
little girl and they were living at the Clinton family home in East lime I met Beth twice in the entire time I knew Kim
the first time was before buzz and Kim were married when Beth and her brother Richard came to our house sat at the
table with my husband and I at which time Beth told me her sister was a [ __ ] and a [ __ ] and that she'd been going out
with a sailor she was a terrible parent um did I understand what was happening with her and I thought it was
inappropriate for these people to come to our house and tell us this stuff Beth Carpenter's attempt to break
up Kim and Buzz's relationship failed the next time D Clinton saw Beth Carpenter was when she showed up at the
wedding with her mother Cynthia Cynthia and Beth came to buzzen in Kim's wedding
um if I remember rightly Kim did not want to invite her family didn't want them here shook in their presence and my
husband and I talk buzz and Kim into inviting them you know even though the relationship isn't good now it can get
better once they get to know us things will change you'll regret it later on um if you don't invite him kiss the
[Music] [Applause] bride after the wedding Buzz began to make plans to move Kim and Rebecca to
Arizona where he had a job offer my concern was that I wanted to be able to see Rebecca every once in a
while make sure she was doing okay in the meantime we started hearing all these stories about about Buzz that were
you know I was a little concerned he had been arrested he was involved with drugs
have been in drug rehab that type of thing I'm thinking oh my God Beth didn't like buzz and didn't like the fact that
her niece um had Buzz I guess his stepfather who was the best father you could ask
for cuz I saw Buzz with Rebecca and she adored him she loved [Music] him police claim it was the couple's
planned move to Arizona that escalated the battle to regain custody of Rebecca police also claimed that it was
Beth Carpenter who dragged her law partner and lover hmon kleene into the bitter custody fight that's came to him
at one point and said I need you to take care of a problem for me the court systems aren't working and uh she wanted
to have him killed hymon said he knew of someone who could do it according to Sergeant Turner the man hymon Klein had
in mind for the murder was his client and cocaine supplier Mark Dee and he explained how he went out and uh hired
Mark de prey to do the murder he had gotten a picture of anon Clinton cut it out giv it to him for identification
purposes he says that Beth was in the Next Room when he did that hmon then put the pressure on Mack to actually go out
and do the murder Beth Carpenter's attorney Tara Knight gives a different version of what
happened between hmon Klein and her client I think what happened is that they developed an intense romantic
relationship and Beth would use hymon Klein as a sounding board she would complain and she would moan and she
would gripe about Buzz Clinton as well as everything else that was going on in her life not to any extreme ex extent
but if her mother called and said oh we had a problem with Buzz she would call up hmon and tell him and Haymon said to
himself you know what I'm going to take care of this problem for my bth the opportunity to lure Buzz to his death
was ironically supplied by the victim himself when he took out an ad to sell a tow truck Anon Clinton gets the call
according to his wife he's all excited he's getting a chance to sell this tow truck for some 300 ,000 and he can't
wait to do it but the caller interested in the tow truck had other plans on the night of March 10th 1994 I was to go
bring my son a battery for the truck he was selling D Clinton never got the chance to make that delivery next on mug
shots how a Truck Sale turns deadly Beth Carpenter was obsessed with regaining custody of her niece Rebecca
whom she and her family had cared for since birth she believed that her sister Kim
and her brother-in-law Buzz whom she was convinced was into drugs were unfit parents Taran Knight Beth's attorney
claims hymon Klein took it upon himself to achieve for Beth what the courts kept
denying her hmon Klein hires his cocaine supplier Mark dpre who by the way practices Satan worshiping in his spare
time to knock off Beth Carpenter's brother-in-law and what he does is he finds out that Buzz Clinton is selling a
tow truck so he calls up Buzz Clinton and says I know you're selling a tow truck I'd like to take a look at it why
don't you meet me and uh and you know we can go and have a look on the night of the murder depre
called his friend Joseph Freemont and wanted him to come along for the killing even though he had helped devise the
plan that would lead Buzz to his death Fremont did not go along depre took his 15-year-old son Christopher along
instead Sergeant Turner picks up the story given to investigators by dea's son Anon Clinton gets on the highway M
Dee is following as he pulls off to exit 92 which is a rocky neet connector they're driving down the the connector
it's a a pretty desolate area and not much in the way of traffic as they get down toward the end of it Max says they
Flash the headlights on the car he then states that uh Anon Clinton pulls over he's driving his brown Firebird as he
gets out of the car and starts to walk back to it m the prey M the prey empties a 38 caliber revolver into it killing
him he then takes off and uh the murderers di immediately after the murder Klein
claims he received a call from Beth Carpenter they discussed the fact that the murder had been committed he says
Beth is very very nervous he says and so is he but he said Beth is almost paranoid he's talking she's talking on
the phone but she says don't talk don't talk the uh phones might be bugged they agree to meet he does in fact meet with
her and he says before they even start to have a conversation she's checking him for hidden wires thinking that the
police have already wired him up and that he might be trying to set her up despite her alleged fears Beth continued
to work with kleene long after he had told her that he had arranged for her brother-in-law's murder then the law
firm started having cash flow problems and Beth Carpenter was laid off with a generous severance
package in December of 1995 investigators of the Connecticut State Police were finally closing in on
hymon Klein they were in his office Gathering evidence against him when Klein called in for his messages he
calls his Law Firm to find out what's going on I need to get my messages his secretary answers the phone and he could
tell something was wrong in her voice and he said is everything okay and she said not really because as she spoke
there were agents and there were uh law enforcement crawling all over his office
looking for evidence in the murder of Buzz Clinton hymon Klein realized something was up and immediately skipped
town we get a a search warrant for his house and an arrest warrant for him we take his information and we turn it over
to the FBI fugitive task force in New Haven they turned it into uh a federal warrant for uh flight to avoid
prosecution and they set out looking for him after Klein disappeared Beth Carpenter called a friend in London who
offered her a job there she packed up her bags and left the country Beth Carpenter anguished whether or not she
should go to Europe talked to all her friends and Neighbors about it lived in Europe under her own name worked in
Europe under her own name now you have one person here who's got a disguise who's living in motels with rats and
pleas uh with a changing his name and you've got a woman who's over in Europe uh registered as a foreigner who's the
fugitive here the police were keeping a tight lid on the investigation saying only that there were
suspects the Connecticut State Police had Enlisted the help of Scotland Yard in getting Beth to Cooper operate with
them and also received assistance from the FBI to track down an arrest Klein on a fugitive warrant and while we were
attempting to uh locate hymon Klein Kevin Kane State's Attorney in New London was in touch with Beth cop's
attorney apparently heon Klein and Beth cander kept in very close contact ever since the murder they were constantly
speaking on the phone and Arrangements were made for Beth to contact hymon Klein while he was on the Run with the
help of Beth Carpenter the FBI was told where to find Klein the tip LED them to stake out this Bank of payones in Sunset
California it was set up so that uh he would show up at a predetermined phone booth because they always did business
over cell phones and over uh telephone booths because they knew that they couldn't be traced or uh listened to
that way uh Beth in fact does call hmon hmon shows up at the prescribed location
and and the FBI uh is there waiting for him and uh arrest him as a fugitive from
Justice and which he's brought back here when then we arrest him for the murder not long after Klein's arrest
Beth Carpenter left London for Dublin Ireland Haymon Klein back in Connecticut was facing the death penalty for the
murder of anen Buzz Clinton theii Beth Carpenter had turned on Her Lover now Klein was ready to pay her
back she apparently moved around she met with a couple of people in London and then ended up over in
Ireland she started working in a pub over there as a waitress and we had the da her ask
questions and and try to find out where she was there was a reason Beth Carpenter moved to Ireland in the first
place Ireland doesn't extradite people facing the death penalty in their home countries but the police in Ireland will
arrest individuals wanted elsewhere and the Connecticut authorities asked that the police in
Dublin take Beth Carpenter into custody on a warrant charging her with murder for hire the Irish authorities did just
that and sent Beth Carpenter to Dublin's Mount Joy prison I got the call at the office and she said you need to come to
Dublin and uh she said I've been arrested she wouldn't tell me anything else I got a flight on Air
Lingus and I I flew out that night Beth Carpenter spent more than a year in a Dublin prison while authorities in both
countries worked on her extradition we go through a series of steps that we have to take through the justice
department and the state department to uh get her extra back to this country assurances through the State's
Attorney's office with the Irish authorities that we will not impose the death penalty even though it's a death
penalty in case because they don't recognize it in their country having received assurances that Beth Carpenter
would not face the death penalty Irish authorities allowed her to be extradited back to Connecticut the US Marshall in
uh New Haven and one of his people went out picked her up and uh flew her back to uh Connecticut we then placed her
under arrest for the murder of against in Clinton the residents of old sa Brook were now treated to a real Scandal Beth
Carpenter in handcuffs and her ex-lover telling all he hated her at this point she was the reason he was in jail she
was the reason he was incarcerated he's saving his neck from the death penalty literally saving his life and he hates
her at this point because she was the one that led the authorities to him next on mug shots Beth Carpenter in court
this time as a defendant accused of murder the investigation into the death of ansen Buzz Clinton III had led to
arrests of four suspects hymon kleene Beth Carpenter Joseph Fremont and his friend Mark Dee three of the four had
admitted to conspiring and participating in the murder and agreed to testify against Beth Carpenter to avoid facing
the death penalty prosecutors made a deal with the devil and that devil was hymon Klein he was literally saving his
own neck by testifying against Beth Carpenter he enabled the prosecutors to drop the death penalty charges against
him he was facing the death penalty Beth Carpenter did not confess nor did she seek a deal from the
prosecution there is one thing you will never hear from these lips and that is let's ple bargain this case this case is
going to try then because the case wasn't moving to trial fast enough she was released on
$150,000 bail she was allowed to return to her parents' home where she remained under house arrest until her trial began
in February of [Music] 2002 well at the trial we learned when Beth actually found out that Heyman had
done it he was gloating he was so proud of himself was like you know I did this for you aren't you proud of me she was
just horrified she couldn't believe it she said no you couldn't have done that tell me that's not true it can't be true
you couldn't have done such a horrible thing and I I didn't know that till the day of the trial Dee had agreed to
testify against Beth Carpenter in exchange he would serve a 45-year sentence to avoid the death penalty he
then changed his mind and had hoped to renegotiate with the prosecution to reduce that 45-year sentence the
prosecutor said No Deal and went to trial without him in the interim Joseph Fremont had died of bladder cancer but
the prosecution still had hmon kleene and he couldn't wait to take the stand like to pray kleene avoided the death
penalty by entering into a plea agreement that guaranteed him a 45-year sentence in exchange for his testimony
against Beth Carpenter none of the other players in this case even knew who the victim was other than Beth Carpenter
made it off obvious that she was the motive and the reason why this occurred in the first
place Beth Carpenter's murder for H trial began in February of 2002 hymon Klein was the only witness to directly
implicate his former lover in the murder of her brother-in-law Buzz Clinton kleene also testified that Beth
had pressured him into getting the murder done as quickly as possible then the defense took the risky step of
putting Beth Carpenter on the stand her Aunt Linda recalls Beth testifying on her own behalf when she
said she didn't remember she didn't remember these other Witnesses remembered minute details of 8 years
prior I mean what time Beth entered the room or what who they were talking to at
the time you don't remember those things it's just impossible because there was no reason for them to remember that at
that point Buzz Clinton's best friend saw a different side of Beth carpent in the courtroom one court date that I went
to and I saw her that's a hollow person that's um a person who has no remorse for what
she's done to this family to my family to any of his friends that loved him I enjoyed looking at Beth Carpenter
sitting there it was good to face the person that had my son murdered I believe wholeheartedly in the fact that it
was her that commissioned this crime when the jury got the case Beth Carpenter was
surrounded by her family and friends who were convinced that the jury would find
her not guilty we were all sitting in this back room and we were talking to Beth and we sat there and we were
actually planning what we wanted to do beth had been in prison for and not been able to even leave the house for so long
that we she was planning what she wanted to do and what she wanted to do was go to the casino so my sister and I were
trying to rearrange all of our plans so that she could have her you know night out at the casino her Victory party we
were just kind of telling stories and everybody was really laughing and having a good time that's going to come home
with us and we're going to be able to celebrate then Tara Knight came into the room the jury was coming back with a
verdict after 4 days of deliberation and I kind of looked around the room a little bit and everybody just
it was almost just this Collective deep breath everybody took at the same time and we all just lined up and we gave a
Beth a hug and a kiss and I remember I walked up to her and I gave her a hug and I gave her a kiss I told her I loved
her and that we would be going out soon the clintons were also in court when they heard the jury had reached a
verdict so we hear a verdicts been reached all of us we're all get in there we sit down and they said
guilty to the first charge um capital felony murder guilty to um murder and guilty to conspiracy to
commit murder and then um I just smiled I just smiled during the trial Beth's defense attorneys portrayed hmon Klein
as an admitted cocaine addict and an adulterer they also claimed that he was obsessed with Beth and had taken it upon
himself to murder Buzz Clinton for her the jury didn't buy it the prosecution would have you believe um and tried to
make the jury believe and probably the jury did believe it that Beth Carpenter was a Wy woman they used every kind of
um image unflattering image of a woman that has ever been used throughout history the eve the temptress the
seductress the woman who manipulated men and it's it's Preposterous and we always
thought it was Preposterous uh but the jury apparently uh disagreed Carpenter was sentenced to
life in prison without parole ironically Kim and her daughter Rebecca now 13 years old are once again
back in the carpenter family home just what Beth wanted but Beth is not there she is serving her sentence in the Janet
York Correctional Facility in Niantic Connecticut just minutes away from where her brother-in-law's body was found we
all admired her and looked up to her and wanted to be like her and it's scary to
think that one's mistake with the wrong person can affect your life forever and and change it so drastically they're
worried about their daughter and being in jail well she's in jail and she's alive and Buzz
isn't and who made them you know judge jury and ex executioner they that's not their place to do that Beth Carpenter is
appealing her conviction and sentence of life without parole the next court appearance in her case is likely to
occur in 2004 when her attorneys will have the opportunity to argue her [Music] appeal
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Brief Summary

Beth Carpenter hired hitmen to kill her brother-in-law in a custody battle, leading to her life sentence for murder.

Key points

The Rise and Fall of Beth Carpenter. Beth Carpenter, a promising lawyer, becomes embroiled in a murder conspiracy.
A Shocking Murder. Anson Buzz Clinton III is found shot five times, leading to a complex investigation.
A Dangerous Affair. Beth's relationship with her boss Hymon Klein spirals into chaos and crime.
Family Feud. The custody battle over Rebecca intensifies, leading to dark decisions.
A Plot Unfolds. Beth Carpenter's desperation leads to a conspiracy to commit murder.
The Battle for Custody. Buzz's planned move to Arizona escalates the custody battle over Rebecca.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I couldn't believe it.

D Clinton's shock at her son's murder.

6:12WatchJul 28, 2014

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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