Woman Convicted of Chopping Up Her Boyfriend

A female cabdriver was convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder for fatally shooting her live-in boyfriend and then cutting off various body parts to prevent his identification.

A jury convicted Cindy Ann Oakley, 30, after one day of deliberations in the trial that began Sept. 21.

Oakley was found guilty of murdering Charles Lee Beabout, 30, whose mutilated body was found Nov. 3 in two locations along Interstate 15 near the Riverside County line.

Jurors refused to comment on the case to reporters or attorneys, but the panel apparently accepted the prosecution’s argument that Oakley plotted to kill her boyfriend because the relationship had soured after just over a year.

Deputy Dist. Atty. August Meyer said Oakley killed Beabout when he “became an irritant in her life.”

“He would not leave on his own accord,” Meyer said, “so she murdered him.”

Beabout was shot to death Nov. 1 in the couple’s bedroom in the La Mesa house they shared. During the trial, Oakley testified that she cut off the victim’s fingerprints and cut out a tattoo containing his name to make it difficult to identify him.

She said she cut off his legs because the body was too heavy to move. Most of Beabout’s body was found wrapped in a sleeping bag, and the remaining parts were wrapped in a plastic trash bag.

Oakley said she accidentally shot Beabout in the head after he had held her at gunpoint for more than two hours.

The shooting took place on the day Beabout was to be evicted from the house, Oakley testified. She said he threatened that “if I wasn’t going to let him stay there, then we were going to go together.”

Oakley testified that Beabout found a gun, which she had borrowed for protection, and threatened her after she consented to have sex with him.

Oakley said she tried to wrestle the gun away from Beabout but that the weapon went off.

Oakley faces a maximum sentence of 30 years to life in state prison when she appears before Superior Court Judge J. Perry Langford for sentencing Nov. 6.