Beth Ann Markman

Case record: Beth Ann Markman

Beth Ann Markman was convicted in connection with the October 2000 murder of Leslie Rae White and was sentenced to death alongside then-boyfriend William Housman. Her conviction was later overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in February 2007, and she subsequently pleaded guilty and received a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Background

Leslie White was an 18-year-old photojournalism student at Harrisburg Area Community College at the time of her death. She and William Housman began a relationship while working at the Mechanicsburg Walmart in August 2000. Housman was already in a romantic relationship with Markman and had been living with her for nearly two years.

Markman discovered e-mails between White and Housman revealing an affair. Markman told Housman to end his relationship with White and told several friends and co-workers she intended to “ ‘kick [White's] ass.’ “ White broke off the relationship after learning that Housman had reunited with Markman.

Markman’s co-workers noticed bruising around her eyes and neck and Markman attributed them to fights with Housman over the e-mails. On one occasion, Markman called Wal-Mart to speak with White, leaving White scared and crying. Markman also visited the store once looking for White but left without incident.

Markman told a friend “if she ever got her hands on [White], she was going to kill her.” She told her probation officer, Nicole Gutshall, she caught Housman cheating on her and that if she caught him cheating again, she would kill the girl. Housman did not terminate his relationship with White.

Markman and Housman made plans to move to Virginia for a fresh start. Markman became suspicious that Housman had not ended his relationship with White.

The offence

Authorities said Markman helped hatch a plot out of jealousy that began with Housman luring White to the mobile home he shared with Markman in the 100 block of Big Spring Terrace, West Pennsboro Township, with a lie about his father's death.

Prosecutors said that on October 4, 2000, Housman lured White to his Newville trailer by telling her that his father had died. Prosecutors said that when White arrived to comfort Housman, Markman tied the teen’s wrists and ankles with speaker wire, shoved a piece of red cloth into her mouth and gagged her. Prosecutors said then Housman strangled White to death with a piece of speaker wire.

During the struggle, White scratched Markman’s neck. White died of asphyxiation caused by strangulation and the rag stuffed into her mouth.

After White died, Markman wrapped White’s body in a tent and placed it in the back of White’s Jeep. The couple then fled to Virginia. Markman drove her car while Housman drove White’s Jeep carrying White’s body. In Virginia, they drove to a remote piece of land owned by Housman’s mother and placed White’s body in the trunk of an abandoned car. They discarded White’s personal effects except for her camera, which they intended to sell.

Housman and Markman remained in Virginia for several days, staying with friends and Housman’s father. Housman continued to drive White’s Jeep, holding it out as his own.

Investigation

After White’s parents filed a missing persons report, authorities tracked her Jeep to Housman’s location in Virginia. Deputy Brian Vaughan of the Franklin County Sheriff’s office went to the house to question Housman and Markman about the Jeep and White’s whereabouts.

When Vaughan saw the Jeep in the driveway, he ran the license plate number, which traced back to the Toyota Leasing Corporation. Markman and Housman came to the door to greet Deputy Vaughan. Vaughan questioned them separately in his patrol car about the Jeep.

Housman, questioned first, told Vaughan he called White to ask her to console him about his dog, which had just died. Housman said White never arrived at the trailer and that he subsequently left with Markman for Virginia. He claimed a friend loaned him the Jeep.

Vaughan then questioned Markman. Markman voluntarily entered the patrol car and explained she had only seen White once and had had several phone conversations with her. She denied knowledge of White’s whereabouts but indicated White had a bad relationship with her parents, suggesting she had run away. Markman denied knowing how Housman acquired the Jeep and admitted driving separate cars to Virginia.

When Vaughan asked Markman if she was afraid of Housman, she said she was not; she admitted she had a violent temper and that Housman often had to restrain her from attacking him. She said she provoked Housman in the past and had thrown things at him, but that Housman never assaulted or threatened her.

Following the police visit, Housman and Markman drove back to the property where they left White’s body; there they abandoned the Jeep. Despite the couple’s efforts to conceal evidence, police discovered the Jeep and White’s partially-decomposed body in the trunk of the abandoned car. The body was still bound, gagged, and wrapped in the canvas tent.

Housman’s fingerprints were found on the car’s trunk lid and license plate. A compact disc was recovered from the Jeep, as was evidence from the Jeep’s hatch and other scene items. Markman’s fingerprints were found on a potato chip bag retrieved from the Jeep, and on the Jeep’s passenger door and rear hatch. Subsequent analysis revealed Markman’s DNA under White’s fingernails.

The Pennsylvania State Police obtained a search warrant for Markman’s trailer and executed it. Investigators found blood on a pillow and urine on the carpet in the place White was likely strangled. Police also discovered two lengths of speaker wire, red fibers on the floor, a piece of red cloth, a steak knife, red fibers on the knife, a tent storage bag, a hammer, and a stethoscope.

After Housman and Markman were arrested, police retrieved White’s camera from the pawn shop and developed the film. The photographs taken at the Overstreet residence were admitted into evidence at trial. In one photograph taken just days after Housman and Markman strangled White to death, Markman was laughing while Housman pretended to strangle her.

Arrest

Police arrested Housman and Markman on October 11, 2000, one week after the murder.

Following their arrest and after receiving Miranda warnings, Markman and Housman waived their rights and agreed to be interviewed, providing tape-recorded statements. Each independently confessed to participating in White’s murder.

Housman admitted to killing White by strangling her but claimed Markman instigated the murder to eliminate the source of one of their relationship problems and enable them to start their relationship anew. He maintained Markman directed him to tie White up and strangle her, and that Markman forced compliance by hitting him with a hammer and then spinning the hammer in a threatening manner.

After White died, Housman said Markman listened with a stethoscope to verify her death before wrapping the body in the tent.

In Markman’s police statement, she admitted she bound and gagged White and held her down while Housman strangled her. She insisted, however, that Housman devised the plan to murder White in order to steal her Jeep and that he coerced her assistance by threatening to kill her with a hunting knife if she did not obey him. Markman also asserted Housman wore down her resistance by terrorizing her the night before the murder by holding a knife to her throat and forcing her to remain naked in the trailer. Markman said she only realized White was dead when White lost control of her bladder.

Trial

At trial, a Cumberland County jury found both Markman and Housman guilty of first-degree murder and they were sentenced to death.

White was of East Waterford and was a photojournalism student at Harrisburg Area Community College when she was killed.

According to trial testimony, Markman helped hatch the plot out of jealousy that began with Housman luring White to the mobile home with a lie about his father's death. Prosecutors said Markman tied White’s wrists and ankles with speaker wire, shoved a piece of red cloth into her mouth and gagged her, and then Housman strangled White to death with a piece of speaker wire.

The couple drove White’s body to Virginia in White’s Jeep Grand Cherokee and dumped it in an abandoned Dodge vehicle on property owned by Housman’s mother, according to trial testimony. The body was found after a tenant farmer notified police about a suspicious vehicle on the property.

Markman and Housman were sentenced in 2001 to die by lethal injection.

The Supreme Court upheld Markman’s conviction on other charges of theft, abuse of a corpse, and criminal conspiracy.

At least one quoted characterization of Markman’s intent appeared in the record: Markman told a friend “if she ever got her hands on [White], she was going to kill her,” and she told several friends and co-workers she intended to “ ‘kick [White's] ass.’ “

Sentencing

After Markman’s death sentence, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court later overturned her conviction in February 2007 and ordered a new trial.

On October 13, 2010, Markman entered guilty pleas to charges of criminal homicide and kidnapping stemming from the October 2000 murder of White. Judge Edward Guido sentenced her to mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Markman apologized to White’s parents as they looked on from across the courtroom. She said: “I'm so sorry. I just hope that by me doing this today... it starts to give them some small sense of closure.”

Judge Edward Guido responded to George White’s statements about the death penalty. Guido said: “I have daughters. I can't pretend to know your loss.”

Appeals

In February 2007, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Markman’s conviction on charges of murder, kidnapping and unlawful restraint and ordered her a new trial in the case. The court agreed with Markman’s claim that the Cumberland County trial court should not have allowed the jury to hear an edited audiotape of a confession by Housman that implicated her in the murder.

A Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision included a dissent. Justice J. Michael Eakin wrote in his dissenting opinion that admission of Housman’s confession “was harmless in light of the overwhelming properly admitted evidence establishing appellants guilt.”

After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered a new trial, two years later the same court upheld the conviction and death penalty sentence for Housman.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Markman as a woman who had been sentenced to death along with her boyfriend for plotting the death of his ex-girlfriend and luring her to his trailer to strangle her. The court’s 4-1 decision overturned Markman’s conviction.

Outcome

Following Markman’s guilty pleas, she received mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Aftermath

Leslie White’s parents, George and Shawnee White, addressed Markman and Judge Guido after sentencing. Shawnee White told the court: “As to what (Beth Markman) has done to our family ... “ “The last 10 years have literally been hell. The last four years of appeals ... we haven't taken a vacation in 10 years because (there was always a new court date to attend). I want her to know what Leslie went through, and what my family went through.”

George White said: “I don't feel that this is justice,” and also said: “If it was your daughter or son that was strangled in the way my daughter was ...”

After Guido replied to George White, George White also said: “Beth Markman is going to go to a jail that has air conditioning, that has heat. She'll have clean sheets every night and food on the table. She has no care in the world,” and continued: “I don't feel that's justice at all. The first ruling of the death penalty was just. Not that she would die any time soon, but just so she doesn't know what day she's going to die.”

Shawnee White offered a wish after sentencing: “While she's sitting there watching cable TV in her jail cell, I want Beth Markman to know that every time she sees a McDonald's commercial, she'll never go through a drive-thru again. Every time she sees an ocean scene, I want her to know that she'll never smell the ocean or feel the sand again. And if her daughter ever gives her a grandchild, I want her to know that she'll never rock them to sleep.”

Other details

Markman was described as 44 years old when she entered guilty pleas on Tuesday, and as 41 years old in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reporting of February 23, 2007.

William Housman was described as 31 in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reporting of February 23, 2007. Leslie White was described as 18 in that reporting.

Markman’s plea was described as occurring ten years to the month after Leslie White was murdered.

During the offence timeline, Housman talked with White in the living room while Markman hid in the bedroom. After Markman heard a thump and White cried out because Housman hit her hand with a hammer, Housman and Markman subdued White and tied her hands and feet with speaker wire, shoved a large piece of red cloth in her mouth, and used another piece of cloth to tie a tight gag around her mouth.

White scratched Markman’s neck during the struggle.

While staying with Larry Overstreet and Kimberly Stultz, Markman corroborated Housman’s story that they bought the Jeep from Markman’s friend in Pennsylvania. Markman retrieved White’s camera from the Jeep and they all took pictures of each other. Markman stated she bought the camera from the same woman who sold them the Jeep.

Overstreet and Stultz recalled seeing scratches on Markman’s neck. Markman explained the scratches were from a dog.

Stultz gave Markman the phone number of a pawn shop. The shop owner testified he gave Markman $90 and a pawn ticket for the camera.

Markman asked Stultz for cleaning supplies because “the Jeep smelled bad, like somebody had a dead animal in [it].” Markman told Stultz Housman had been seeing another woman and that if she ever met this other woman, she would “whoop her ass.”

Another friend, Nina Jo Fields, testified that during the couple’s visit to her home, Markman told her Housman had been cheating on her, but that she “[didn't] have to worry about the damn bitch anymore, [because she] took care of it.”

Deputy Vaughan observed the Jeep in the driveway and ran the license plate number, which traced back to the Toyota Leasing Corporation.

Police discovered the Jeep and White’s partially-decomposed body in the trunk of an abandoned car; the body was still bound, gagged, and wrapped in the canvas tent.

The photographs taken at the Overstreet residence included at least one showing Markman laughing while Housman pretended to strangle her.

The Pennsylvania State Police search of Markman’s trailer found blood on a pillow and urine on the carpet in the place White was likely strangled, along with two lengths of speaker wire, red fibers on the floor, a piece of red cloth, a steak knife, red fibers on the knife, a tent storage bag, a hammer, and a stethoscope.

Markman and Housman’s police statements included admissions that Markman bound and gagged White and held her down while Housman strangled her, plus claims that Housman threatened her with a hunting knife and terrorized her the night before by holding a knife to her throat and forcing her to remain naked in the trailer.