Inside horrific murder-for-hire crime scene in upstate NY

when suburban mother Kelly Clayton was found murdered in her home residents in her small upstate New York town were shocked she seemed to have the perfect life a happy marriage and no enemies but investigators soon found that things were not as they appeared here's ABC's Ryan Smith try not to Stephanie okay yeah it was a scene that seemed too horrific to be real hand footage showing two police officers responding to a frantic 911 call just after midnight in September of 2015 blood spatter blood on the wall the victim 35 year old Kelly Clayton a beautiful wife and loving mother of two small children I'll show you her stuff is yeah just watch the floor there's blood there blood up there bludgeoned to death in her own home Kelly's husband Thomas called 911 home from a poker game finding her body on the kitchen floor how long has she been down I don't know I don't know I just got home okay come on out here man come on out here I want you to have a seat you don't need to see that anymore okay outside his home police tried to calm him are you doing just take some deep breaths okay I know yeah just take some deep breaths and stop just try to stay calm well sit down then come on over here sit down while inside investigators begin piecing together what happened and trying to make sense of a seemingly senseless murder rocking a small town in upstate New York Kelly was born and raised in Elmira athletic and popular she was always under the watchful eye of her older sister Kim she was kind of my baby you were protective of her very what was she like vivacious bold sassy her big personality and dreams taking her from Elmira to Las Vegas trading a teaching job for work as a cocktail waitress she loved it out there she loved it but it was her attraction to a lake this big stand back home it's so mad you just want it you know you want a job guys you want to fight someone just like when your little kidney didn't get so bad you just want to fight a hockey player for the semi-pro Elmira jackals Tom Clayton known for fighting on the ice and flirting off of it so he was like a bad boy yes Kelly's friend Andrea Speer ock worked at the bar were the hockey team hung out Kelly turned hats and was it love at first sight I think so I thought so Kelly moved back home to New York and Tom put his pro hockey dreams on ice both giving up their big plans for something bigger she was so happy to be marrying him they got married and had two children their first Charlie a girl and a few years later a boy Cullen they seemed like the perfect family she loved her kids she loved her husband she loved her life the life that she thought she had I cannot sit here and tell you that I saw anything that would have led me to believe he was capable of what happened to my sister he called I remember running to the ambulance expecting to find them working on my sister and I'm like is my sister in there where's my sister where's my sister my mother and I were whaling I was throwing up on the side of the road I can't even explain to you that feeling the savage brutality sucking even to the first responders her faith yeah yeah blood all over looks like she was attacked and Bennet this was an extremely brutal attack a very gruesome situation Donald Lewis the Steuben County Sheriff's Office lead investigator was on the scene that night there was some sort of attack in the upstairs area there was a hole in the sheet rock at the bottom of the stairs and a blood trail that ended at mrs. Clayton's body in the kitchen area she was killed with a fiberglass small handle police become increasingly suspicious of Kelly's husband Thomas I think he attacked her he has no blood on him I checked I don't know there was a lot of things that kind of raised some flags there were no signs of forced entry or robbery and despite witnesses and Tom's GPS placing him at a friend's poker game that night police take him into custody once we arrested mr. Clayton the investigation did not stop and while looking into Tom's alibi police learned that a woman at the poker game says Tom asked to borrow her phone to make a call just 90 minutes before he got home to find Kelly's body simultaneously police are looking into a new person of interest Michael beard a former employee at one of Tom's companies who had recently been fired mr. beard would go the distance for tom because tom was taking care of Mike the two had been in contact frequent phone calls and text messages including the phone call from the poker game that was the smoking gun a smoking gun revealing what investigators believe was a sinister murder-for-hire plot and an ugly truth behind a seemingly perfect marriage Michael beard confessed to being hired by Thomas Clayton to murder Kelly Clayton but why would Clayton a successful businessman with a seemingly happy marriage want his wife dead I believe that he wanted his freedom he just didn't want to be married anymore I think that he's of very greedy person he would have benefited greatly if he was able to get away with this do you think he did it for the money personally yes I do Tom had recently doubled Kelly's life insurance policy and authorities alleged tom was romantically entangled with other women but didn't think divorce was an option the life insurance and the fact that he had made comments to some of these women that came out to trial that if he was the divorce Kelly she would take everything from him and then when you learned that Tom according to prosecutors hired beard to kill Kelly what was your reaction when your at-bat truthfully my first thought was he was a coward I mean it's like a movie but it's my sister how do you have a conversation with someone like that like how we're sitting here now how do I say to you hey would you ever consider killing my wife who thinks that way how do you even bring that up did you ever hear anything about him being unfairly ever never Clayton and beard were each charged with first-degree murder and tried separately beard who at first had confessed changed his story and pleaded not guilty claiming Clayton hired him to burn down his house for insurance money but says he never went through with it he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole Clayton also pleaded not guilty his defense insists all of the evidence is circumstantial you could explain away a lot of them calls and a lot of the circumstances but you couldn't explain all of it away he was found guilty his lawyers tell ABC News they will appeal after sentencing Kelly's family is trying to move forward the best they can since her murder the children Charlie now 8 and Cullen 5 had been living with Kim and her husband I thank God that I have Charlie and Collin those kids that's what gets me up every day they make you stay present and I'm so thankful for that I know that's what she would want if you could say one thing to him right now mm-hmm what would that be you took her life not her light and her light will shine forever through Charlie through Cullen through me forever and we'll be okay for Nightline I'm Ryan Smith in New York [Music]

Channel: ABC News

Views: 7,015,796

Rating: 4.725883 out of 5

Keywords: New, York, Kelley, Clayton, Thomas, Michael, Beard, Mark, Blandford, murder, for, hire, crime, abc, abcnews

Id: tdRYxlH-Ce4

Length: 8min 31sec (511 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 25 2017