Preliminary testimony was presented Tuesday in Limestone County District Court during a hearing for a couple charged with capital murder in the beating death of a 74-year-old Ardmore man.

The testimony began after regular business hours at the courthouse because several criminal cases were being heard.

The couple, Jeannie Green, 35, and her husband, Derrick Green, 41, are charged, along with a friend, Randal “Bingo” Clem, 39, with beating 74-year-old Art Champion to death in his mobile home in mid-November 2006 to rob him of money to buy drugs.

Clem waived his right to a hearing and his case now will be heard by a grand jury.

Champion’s body was discovered a day later by Champion’s hearing-impaired son, who lives in Madison County, according to Sheriff Mike Blakely. The son had come to check on his father and found him lying in a pool of blood on his bedroom floor. The son went to Ardmore Police with a note about what he had found, said Blakely.

Blakely said that it appeared that Champion had blunt-force trauma to the head. He described a bloody scene that indicated Champion was struck in the living room and had gone down the hall to his bedroom for something and died on the floor next to his bed.

Ardmore Police told sheriff’s investigators that Jeannie Green was known to frequent Champion’s mobile home a lot, so they went to interview her.

Ardmore Police also received an anonymous call that they needed to check out Derrick Green and Bingo Clem, Blakely said.

Blakely said that Ardmore Police rounded up the two suspects, and Jeannie Green told him that the pair had gone to Champion’s home to rob him Friday night. However, investigators soon began to suspect that Jeannie Green’s involvement in his death was much deeper, said Blakely.

Investigators learned that the trio of suspects had been allegedly smoking crack and drinking all day the day before the killing. Blakely said Jeannie Green went to Champion’s house to borrow some money and he told her he didn’t have any because he was going on a trip and needed to save his money.

Blakely said the pair got Jeannie Green to go back over to Champion’s house to wake him and use the telephone. He said that when Green left the mobile home, she allegedly left the door unlocked.

The sheriff said investigators learned that Derrick Green and Bingo Clem went back over and entered the trailer and hit Champion on the head with a post-hole digger handle. Blakely said that after hitting Champion his assailants emptied a plastic jar of quarters that the victim kept in his bedroom, stealing about $100. He said they then allegedly contacted a Harvest drug dealer and purchased about five rocks of crack cocaine.

Blakely said investigators recovered 2 1/2 feet of the stick they believe was used in the murder from where it was hidden under some leaves.

He said all three suspects confessed under questioning. All three are being held in Limestone County Jail charged with capital murder without bond.