Man Guilty of Murder of Missing Woman

A Tustin man was convicted Thursday of murder in the 1981 death of a young Carson woman whose body has never been found.

Family members of Tracy Lee Stewart, 18, wept as the six-man, six-woman jury declared Robert Wayne Beckett Jr. guilty of killing her on Aug. 9, 1981.

Beckett, 28, wearing jeans and cowboy boots and shackled at the feet, showed no emotion as the verdict was read. But he laughed and joked with bailiffs as he was led out of the courtroom.

Sentencing has been delayed pending a probation report, which is due Aug. 31. He could be sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison.

In December, 1988, Beckett and his father, Robert Beckett Sr., were charged with the murder. But after the son backed out of an agreement to testify against his father, the older man was released, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Dale Davidson.

Beckett was the last person seen with Stewart, when he picked her up at her Carson residence for a date and drove to his father’s Torrance area home. His arrest came after his conviction in 1985 for felonious assault on a woman friend in Colorado, for which he served two years.