From Tracy Beatty’s appeal: Appellant and Click had a volatile and combative relationship. Appellant moved into Click’s house in early October 2003. Although Click told her next-door neighbor and close friend, Betty McCarty, that appellant had assaulted her several times in the past, Click said that she was excited about appellant’s arrival. Click’s excitement, however, vanished shortly after appellant moved in. McCarty testified that Click told her that she asked appellant to leave sometime in October and a second time on November 25, 2003–two days before Thanksgiving and the last day Click was seen alive. Around 4:00 p.m. on November 25th, Click went to McCarty’s house. Click was “stressed out and crying.” Click told McCarty that she was unhappy about the way things were going with appellant and that she had asked appellant to leave:
[Prosecutor:] What did [Click] tell you?
[McCarty:] That she had asked him to leave that day, and that – she said, “I put up with all I’m going to put up with, and I had asked him to leave,” and she was upset about it. And that’s the last time I saw her.
[Prosecutor:] Did she tell you what time that day she had told [appellant] to leave?
[McCarty:] No, sir.
Although McCarty initially testified that Click said that she “asked” appellant to leave, she later clarified that Click said, “I told [appellant] to leave today.” McCarty did not know exactly when the conversation with appellant had occurred that day or when appellant was supposed to leave:
[Defense counsel:] Did [Click] say specifically when . . . she had that conversation with [appellant] or when he was supposed to leave by?
[McCarty:] No, sir. I saw her at 4:00, and I didn’t know anything about it until that time. So I don’t know what time she told him.
Appellant’s cousin, Stacey Killough, testified that appellant arrived at her house later that day between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. driving Click’s car. Killough testified that the drive from Click’s house to her house takes approximately forty-five minutes. Appellant smelled of alcohol but was not intoxicated. Noting Click’s absence, Killough became suspicious because Click was “very protective” of her car and never let anyone else drive it. In fact, Killough had previously seen Click refuse to let appellant drive the car. When Killough asked appellant where Click was, appellant told her that Click was out of town with a friend and would not be back for a few weeks. Because Killough was busy, appellant stayed at Killough’s house for only five to ten minutes.
Lieanna Wilkerson testified that she lived across the road from Click and that they had become close friends. Click told Wilkerson that appellant had assaulted her on several occasions in the past. Once appellant had “beaten her so severely that he had left her for dead.” Click was nevertheless excited that appellant was coming to live with her and hoped that she and appellant could mend their relationship. After appellant moved in with Click, Wilkerson hired him to do odd jobs around her house because he was unemployed. The two became friends, and Wilkerson referred to appellant as “Trey.” Appellant went to her house when he and Click would argue, which was daily. Toward the end of October and the first part of November, appellant house-sat for Wilkerson while she was out of town for several days. Wilkerson extended the offer to appellant because she was concerned about appellant and Click fighting, and she thought it would give them an opportunity to separate from each other. When Wilkerson returned home, appellant’s suitcase was sitting in the living room. Appellant told Wilkerson that Click had packed his things and brought them over. Wilkerson understood this to mean that Click had packed appellant’s suitcase in an effort to kick him out. Appellant, however, returned to Click’s house and continued to live with her. According to Wilkerson, appellant and Click fought daily in November.
Wilkerson described a conversation that she had with appellant in the middle of November in which he expressed his anger with Click. Appellant told Wilkerson about missing a job interview with an electric company that he had been very excited about. Click refused to drive him to the interview, saying that “she just didn’t feel like it.” Wilkerson knew that appellant could not drive himself because Click refused to let appellant, who did not have a driver’s license, borrow her car. Around the same time, appellant told Wilkerson that he thought about harming Click:
[Wilkerson:] I know [appellant] had said they were underpinning her house, and he had gotten upset . . . . And they had gotten into a huge fight, and she was yelling at him, and he just made an offhand comment, “I can’t believe she handed me that hammer.” He said, “Because all I could think about was hitting her in the head with it.” And I said, “Trey,” and he goes, “Well, I couldn’t do it.” He said, “If I shoved her under there, she would have just started stinking.”
Tracy Beatty v State of Texas 2009 (conviction and sentence affirmed)
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Tracy Lane Beatty v William Stephens 2014 denied COA (certificate of appealability)
Murderpedia: Tracy Lane Beatty
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The Mind of a Murderer: Bad to the Bone
INMATE INFORMATION
SID Number: 02579594
TDCJ Number: 00999484
Name: BEATTY,TRACY
Race: W
Gender: M
DOB: 1961-01-23
Maximum Sentence Date: DEATH ROW
Current Facility: POLUNSKY
Projected Release Date: DEATH ROW
Parole Eligibility Date: DEATH ROW
Offense History:
Offense Date: 2003-11-25
Offense: CAPITAL MURDER (DEATH)
Sentence Date: 2004-08-10
County: SMITH
Case No.: 241-0978-04
Sentence (YY-MM-DD) death
