Court Hears Dismemberment Tale

A La Mesa woman calmly told a Superior Court jury Thursday that she dismembered her live-in boyfriend because no one would believe that he was accidentally shot during a struggle over a handgun.

Cindy Ann Oakley, a 30-year-old cabdriver, was on the witness stand most of the day as she explained how a yearlong relationship soured after Charles Lee Beabout became jealous and possessive.

Two weeks after a violent fight in which she used a stun gun to calm Beabout, Oakley testified, her boyfriend confronted her with a handgun in a desperate attempt to prevent his eviction from the house.

During a two-hour standoff Nov. 1, 1991, Beabout aimed the cocked weapon at Oakley and threatened that “if I wasn’t going to let him stay there, then we were going to go together,” she testified.

“I thought he intended to kill both of us,” Oakley said.

After persuading Beabout to lie down and gain control of his emotions, Oakley said, she saw her chance to get the gun away from him.

She jumped on the arm that held the gun. “I was trying to get the gun out of his hand, and it went off,” Oakley said.

Answering questions from defense attorney William Youmans, Oakley remained composed, but paused before explaining that she was “freaked out” and “terrified” when she realized Beabout was dead.

Though she waited for police to arrive after the incident, Oakley explained that she did not call authorities herself because “I didn’t think anybody would believe what had happened.”

“It just seemed too bizarre,” she testified.

Oakley also did not tell a roommate about the killing.

The next day Oakley rented a car because “I decided I had to hide what had happened.”

After the body lay dead in the couple’s bedroom for more than 30 hours, she said, she decided to cut it up because she was not strong enough to lift it.

In addition to severing the legs, Oakley said, she cut off Beabout’s fingerprints and a tattoo of his name so he could not be identified.

Oakley lashed a sleeping bag containing Beabout’s body and a trash bag with the body parts to the trunk of the rented car, she said, but could not explain how the packages ended up along Interstate 15 near Riverside County.

Oakley will continue testifying Friday.