Celeste Beard Johnson

Status: Incarcerated for life

Celeste Beard Johnson is in prison for orchestrating the death of her husband in order to inherit his money. She manipulated a mentally ill codependent woman to do so. She maintains her innocence to this point.

The status of her fourth marriage to Stephen Cole Johnson is unclear.

Appellant met Steven Beard in 1993 while working as a waitress at the Austin Country Club, where Beard was a member.   Beard's wife of forty-two years, who was seriously ill when he met appellant, died in October of that year.   Appellant divorced her third husband, Jimmy Martinez, in April 1994, and Beard and appellant were married in February 1995.   At the time of the marriage, appellant was thirty-two years old and Beard was seventy.   Appellant had thirteen-year-old twin daughters, Kristina and Jennifer, from a previous marriage.   Kristina was living with appellant in Austin, but Jennifer lived with her father in Washington.   After appellant married Beard, Jennifer moved to Austin to join her mother and sister, and the girls were adopted by Beard following the death of their natural father.   Beard was a man of considerable wealth, and the family lived in an expensive subdivision in a home Beard commissioned following his marriage to appellant.

In early 1999, appellant entered St. David's Pavilion, a psychiatric hospital, for treatment of depression.   There, she met Tracey Tarlton, who was another female patient.   The nature of the relationship between appellant and Tarlton was a matter of dispute at trial.   Tarlton, a lesbian, testified that she loved appellant and believed appellant loved her.   The defense, on the other hand, portrayed Tarlton as delusional and appellant as the object of Tarlton's obsessive behavior.   It was undisputed, however, that appellant and Tarlton continued to see each other during the summer and fall of 1999, after they left Timberlawn.





You can write to her at:

Celeste Beard Johnson 01157250
Goree Unit
7405 Highway 75 South
Huntsville, TX 77344

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