Limestone grand jury adds charge in reckless murder case
Published 6:30 am Tuesday, July 2, 2019
- Christina Beck
The Limestone County grand jury has added an additional charge against a Decatur woman accused of reckless indifference murder and driving under the influence in the 2016 death of her son.
District Attorney Brian Jones told The News Courier on Monday jurors added the count of reckless manslaughter to the charges against 43-year-old Christina Marie Beck of 3405 Tanglewood Drive. Her jury trial is set for Aug. 19 in Limestone County Circuit Court before Judge Chadwick Wise. Jones said the manslaughter charge is what is called a lesser-included charge. He said a jury could find a defendant guilty on either reckless indifference murder or reckless manslaughter, but not both. Or they could find a defendant guilty of neither.
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The wreck
Beck is charged in an April 21, 2016, fatal wreck on Huntsville-Browns Ferry Road in Limestone County. Beck and her 5-year-old son, Eli Cameron Beck, were driving in a rental car on Huntsville-Browns Ferry, a half-mile east of Interstate 65, when she crossed a bridge in the rain and slid into the path of an oncoming utility van driven by Joseph Beggs, 49, of Somerville. The child, who was wearing a seatbelt but not a child restraint, was declared dead at the scene. Beggs was treated at Athens-Limestone Hospital. Christina Beck was seriously injured but recovered.
After the crash, Jones subpoenaed Beck’s medical records, which indicated she was “intoxicated (alcohol) and under the influence of marijuana at the time of the crash,” according to the incident report.
Beck, who remains free on a $51,000 bond, has retained Huntsville attorney Richard Jensen to represent her.