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On stand, lawyer denies murder-for-hire plot

NEW LONDON, Connecticut (Court TV) -- A Connecticut lawyer on trial for taking part in a plot to kill her brother-in-law testified Wednesday that she continued an affair with the confessed ringleader of the murder despite her fear of being "tainted" by his role in the crime.

"I needed to be with him. I couldn't function without him," cried Beth Carpenter, describing why she stayed with her one-time law partner and lover, Haiman Clein, after he admitted to his role in the slaying of Anson "Buzz" Clinton III. "I wasn't a whole person."

Carpenter, 38, is charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and capital felony. She faces life in prison without parole if convicted.

No stranger to courtroom strategy, Carpenter endured her second day on the stand Wednesday, fending off many of prosecutor Kevin Kane's questions with the refrain, "I do not recall."

But Kane steadily worked his way into what could be the fulcrum of the state's case: Carpenter's relationship with Clein after the March 10, 1994, murder that left Clinton dead on the side of highway.

Prompted by Kane, Carpenter remained steadfast in her claim that she wasn't involved in the killing and described the moment when, in the midst of a weekend getaway to New York to see a basketball game, Clein allegedly first revealed his involvement.

"I told him I didn't want to listen to it, and I told him to please tell me it wasn't true," an emotional Carpenter told the court. Clein went on to boast and laugh about the murder, she said, labeling Buzz Clinton a "scumbag" and saying he had done the world a service.

"I told him, 'Only someone who was crazy would do something like this,'" Carpenter said. "He said, 'Don't you see? You don't have anything to worry about anymore." Carpenter's eyes flashed inquisitively upon the jury box, as they did frequently throughout her day on the stand.

For Carpenter, the hotel room disclosure is crucial to her claim that Clein orchestrated Clinton's slaying as a rogue boyfriend bolstered by her offhand complaints about Clinton, not as a lover recruited for the task.

Defense lawyer Hugh Keefe gave his client a chance to state as much when he asked her, point blank, "Did you ever ask anybody, including Haiman Clein, to murder your brother-in-law?"

"No," Carpenter testified.

This claim is complicated by the fact that she maintained a relationship with the married Clein well beyond the March 1994 killing, accepting jewelry from the well-heeled attorney, sleeping with him and talking frequently with him over the phone after she moved to London.

Carpenter's precarious position was not lost on prosecutor Kane, who asked the timid defendant Wednesday to explain why she didn't inform the police immediately after she found out her boyfriend had set up the hit.

"It wasn't until suddenly you learned he was a fugitive that you wanted him arrested?" Kane asked.

"Yes," Carpenter admitted. "I was concerned the taint would rub off on myself."

Carpenter eventually helped apprehend Clein by supplying the FBI with the number of a pay phone in California he had asked her to call at a specific time -- a decision she said Wednesday she was still "ambivalent" about because of her feelings for the attorney.

Prosecutors contend that Carpenter wanted Clinton dead because of a bitter feud that had erupted over the care and well-being of her niece, the 3-year-old daughter of Carpenter's sister, Kim.

Clein pleaded guilty to murder and conspiracy charges in a deal requiring him to testify against his former lover. While he awaits sentencing in prison, Carpenter is free on $150,000 bond and is living in her parents' Ledyard, Connecticut, home.

The trial, which began in February, will enter its 23rd day with Carpenter on the stand Thursday for the third day.