he explained that away by saying that he, the night before, had to recycle his minutes on his phone. it was a little bit suspicious to me. did you start to come down really hard on him? like, i don t we re not buying your story? it wasn t hard. it was more like i was trying to say, let the truth out, because he was having physical like, his stomach was rolling. and i was saying, mike, just let the truth come out. let it come out. it wants to come out. let the truth come out. it s not adding up. you got to stop. you hear your body right now. your body s telling you that you re not telling the truth. just get it out. reporter: while investigator lambert was speaking with beard, he was interrupted by a colleague who had been grilling beard s wife. she mentioned a dramatic piece of information, something about a big payment beard was expecting to get from tom. $10,000. the investigators confronted beard. at that point, he was just defeated. i looked at him and said, $10,00
the fear, just because nothing is making sense and you try to make sse of somethinth s not logical. this has been such a betrayal of someone that s been in our lives for a number of years. were you trying to give him the benefit of the doubt at all? i want to say there was no looking back. you know? i believe he was involved. reporter: if kelley s sister had any doubt about tom s guilt, it was erased when she saw him in court for the first time. i was there at his bail hearing. he had a bullet proof vest on, shackles, no emotion. he doesn t look. he doesn t cry. and he gets out on $250,000 cash bail. that s pretty low. and he s been out ever since. reporter: and he seemed determined to profess his innocence to anyone who d listen. he said, i d like to tell you my side of the story. i said, i really don t want to hear it. i don t want to get any more involved.
dreaming she d do her own detective work. you really connected the dots. to get the police to this moment. yeah. she did good. if you can call it good. reporter: finally, the prosecutor said he knew why tom wanted his wife dead. he called kelley s niece mollie to the stand. he just told me a lot of stuff about their relationship. reporter: molly told the jury about the summer she worked for her uncle tom. she said he talked a lot about his marriage. that he wasn t in love with her anymore, that kelley was very lazy. and he told me about him trying to sleep with other women and that he was sleeping with other women. and he told me that he also was getting close to a divorce. he just wanted to be done. reporter: the prosecutor told the jury this was tom s motive. he wanted to get rid of his wife but keep everything else. i think he was concerned that his wife, if they went through a divorce, that she probably would get everything and this was an
reporter: molly, only 16 at the time, told police she d spent the summer working for her uncle at his restoration business, servpro. and there she met one of his employees. a man named michael beard. tom told her to keep her distance. he never really wanted me around michael beard. he didn t want me, like, working with him. reporter: michael beard was no stranger to the family. he actually had done work at my sister s home. my sister would give his daughter charlie s hand-me-downs, clothes, toys. my sister would make lunch for him when he was there working at her home. reporter: while kelley was kind to beard, she told her sister she didn t always feel comfortable around him. i remember kelley, you know, not wanting to be home alone if he was there. you know, he he was civil. he was nice. but i i don t think she wanted to be left home alone. reporter: now, molly told investigators that her uncle tom had recently fired beard. michael beard was fired
september 17th. and then kelley was murdered the, like, night of the 28th, 29th. so it wasn t long at all. reporter: was it possible that beard was angry about losing his job and that kelley s murder was some kind of revenge? molly went through her cell phone and her facebook contacts and gave investigators beard s address. i gave that to them. and they were just like, okay, thank you. reporter: the steuben county sheriff s office needed all hands on deck and called in the new york state police for assistance. i was contacted by investigators the day of the homicide. reporter: investigator matt lambert was assigned to run down the michael beard lead. reporter: what did you know about michael beard s background? he actually was a pretty well-respected employee until september 17th, when when tom had fired him. reporter: why did tom fire him? stealing from jobs and drinking, i think, on the job and that he fired him on the 17th because there s maybe some complaints