LAKEPORT — A co-defendant in the Maddox double-murder case testified at the Lake County Courthouse Tuesday during the first day of the preliminary hearing of his co-defendant, Robby Alan Beasley.
Judge Richard Martin presided. Deputy District Attorney Art Grothe represented the Lake County District Attorney”s Office and attorney Stephen Carter represented Beasley.
Beasley, 30, and Elijah Bae McKay, 28, face two counts of murder in connection with the deaths of Maine residents Frank Maddox, 32, and Yvette Maddox, 40. Beasley also faces a third felony charge of being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm.
In March, the partially decomposed bodies of the married Maine couple were discovered at the bottom of an embankment off of Morgan Valley Road in Lower Lake, and further investigation showed that the couple sustained gunshot wounds in addition to other injuries, according to the Lake County Sheriff”s Office (LCSO).
McKay was the third witness to testify Tuesday. He testified that he has known Beasley for 15 years, dating back to when the two grew up in the same Maine town.
McKay said he moved to California about five years ago and soon worked his way to Mendocino County where he grew marijuana for a marijuana club.
McKay said he started growing marijuana on his own in Lake County in 2007 and offered Beasley a job around August of that year.
Beasley continued to work in Lake County and suggested in September 2009 that two of his friends from Maine, Frank and Yvette Maddox, come to Lake County and assist with that growing season, according to McKay.
The Maddox” worked briefly for McKay in October 2009, after Beasley had “vouched for them,” but were soon found to be unreliable workers, McKay testified.
Beasley, who had begun indoor growing at his Lower Lake apartment, suspected the Maddox” organized a January 2010 theft of packaged marijuana from Beasley”s apartment, McKay said.
Beasley planned on scaring the Maddox” at gunpoint into leaving Lake County on the night of Jan. 22, 2010, according to McKay, who later described the events of Jan. 22, 2010, which he said was the night Frank and Yvette Maddox died.
McKay testified that he helped Beasley dispose of evidence and had previously sold Beasley an unregistered handgun that he thinks Beasley used the night of alleged crime.
McKay told the court he decided to speak with the investigators in December after his girlfriend said she had been threatened with arrest and told that their young son would be taken from her care.
McKay said he received no deals in relation to the charges against him for his testimony. The statement McKay gave to investigators on Dec. 30 would not be used against him in his own double-murder trial, Grothe said.
McKay was arrested for cultivation-related charges in March, posted $10,000 bail, fled California and was returned in Lake County by his local bondsman in October, according to the LCSO. McKay was charged with the Maddox double-murder in December.
Beasley was arrested in early March for an outstanding warrant from Maine and has remained in the Lake County Jail since that time, according to the LCSO. He was also charged with double-murder in December.
Four other witnesses testified Tuesday. The first two witnesses to testify at the hearing were people who said they each knew the Maddox” during the latter part of 2009 and early January 2010. Beasley”s former girlfriend testified briefly in the afternoon.
LCSO Det. Thomas Andrews, the primary investigator into the Maddox” deaths, was the final witness called Tuesday. He testified about the results of investigations into several pieces of evidence, including a computer tower recovered from Beasley”s place of residence in Clearlake and a cell phone found on Yvette Maddox”s body.
The preliminary hearing resumes today at 9 a.m. in Department 2.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
