Twitter/2020
On September 29, 2015, 35-year-old Kelley Clayton was found dead in her home.
Tonight, Clayton’s murder case will be investigated in an all-new episode of ABC News’ 20/20. Here’s what you need to know:
1. She Was Found Bludgeoned to Death with a Maul Handle
.@ABC2020 reports on new details of a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by hockey star husband, sentenced to life in prison. t.co/OkKPFGfzbr
FRIDAY at 10 p.m. ET: @DebRobertsABC sits down with Kim Bourgeois, Kelley Clayton’s sister
At 12:30am on September 29, 2015, authorities found Kelley Clayton dead in her home. It was later revealed that she had been bludgeoned to death with a broken maul handle.
In the afternoon of September 29, Kelley’s husband was charged with her death. A man named Michael Beard was taken into custody days later.
Kelley was born and raised in Elmina, New York. She was a talented athlete growing up and eventually moved to Las Vegas to work as a cocktail waitress. It was there that she met her future husband, Thomas Clayton.
2. Her Husband & Michael Beard Were Charged with Her Murder
Kelley Clayton-Thomas Clayton murder episode on ’20/20′ will air Friday t.co/xlpxX0b5LE
When Kelley met Thomas, he was working as a professional hockey player. Thomas, who hailed from Binghamton, played for four seasons with the Elmira Jackals hockey team. When he retired from the sport, he ran Paul Davis Emergency Services, a fire and water damage restoration firm, which is where he met Michael Beard, who worked under him.
According to the Star-Gazette, Beard was being questioned by police when he confessed that Clayton offered to pay him $10,000 to kill his wife. The outlet notes that Beard repeated that statement for a grand jury, but eventually recanted.
As it turns out, Thomas Clayton was the one who called 911 after saying he “returned home from a poker game and found [his wife’s] body on the kitchen floor.”
Beard’s statement and the mounting physical evidence against both men resulted in their being charged with first-degree murder. Today, they are both serving life sentences in New York without the possibility of parole.
3. Her Young Daughter Was an Eye Witness to the Murder
Who really killed Kelley Clayton? See the police body cam footage from the night the mom of two was murdered and the police interview with the 7-year-old daughter who becomes a key eyewitness in the case. Watch our encore #ABC2020 TONIGHT at 10|9c on ABC. t.co/Akl2wCEN3g
Together, Kelley and Clayton had two children: a daughter, Charlie, and a son, Cullen.
According to ABC News, Steuben County Sheriff Jim Allard spoke to Charlie shortly after the incident, and the young girl said that she saw a man “hurting mommy”.
Speaking to 20/20, Allard explains, “She told me that, ‘a man was hurting mommy’… He did this and he did that.’ So finally I said, ‘How do you know it’s a he?’ And she said, ‘Because his eyes look just like daddy’s.’ And that was a chilling moment for me.”
The conversation with Charlie was recorded and played in court.
At one point in the video, Charlie is heard telling investigators, “In the middle of the night, this guy came and started hitting my mom with like this pipe thingy… There was blood everywhere. On my door, on the floor. Not on the carpet though. And I thought she was dead when she was lying on the ground in the blood.”
Charlie also said that the mask the ‘robber’ wore was similar to what her father wore when he went hunting. Asked how big the man was, Charlie said, “The size of my dad.”
Allard explains to 20/20, “Everything was ‘just like daddy,’… Every question I asked her related back to daddy and then she looks at me. She goes, ‘But it couldn’t have been daddy because then who would take care of us?’”
4. Several Women Testified in Court to Having Affairs with Clayton
Clayton’s trial lasted nearly seven weeks.
In court, prosecutors argued that Clayton no longer loved his wife, which explained his many affairs. At his trial in 2017, three women testified that he “often complained about Kelley,” reports the Democrat and Chronicle.
One woman who testified was a minor– just 15 years old when the alleged affair took place.
When they took the stand, all three women said that Clayton called Kelley “lazy” and planned to leave her. Spectrum Local News reports, “Thomas told one of the women that he couldn’t get a divorce because Kelley would ‘take everything.'”
5. Clayton Recently Appealed His Murder Conviction
Attorneys prepare for appeal of Thomas Clayton murder conviction t.co/Ot7C3MWMPb via @stargazette
In October 2018, Thomas Clayton appealed his murder conviction. In the report, Rochester-based appellate attorney Brian Shiffrin asked that the court reverse Clayton’s conviction for first and second-degree murder.
One of his arguments was against an Arizona company that used data from cellphones to map people’s movements through their cellphones. Shiffrin argued that the data, which was important in trial, was “unreliable and untested”.
The Democrat and Chronicle goes on to write, “Shiffrin also argued that Wetmore provided Ray’s testing results and background date immediately before and during the trial, illegally denying defense time to prepare an expert. Wetmore countered, saying that the evidence was provided in accordance with the law and that defense lawyers did not request an adjournment for time to scrutinize Ray’s tests.”
Today, Thomas Clayton is serving his sentence at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York. Beard is serving his sentence at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York.