Kelley Clayton's killer maintains innocence on ABC's 20/20. What we learned from interview

More than six years after he was convicted in one of the Southern Tier's most high-profile murder cases, Michael Beard is still proclaiming his innocence — this time on national TV.

Beard, found guilty of first-degree murder in November 2016 for the brutal bludgeoning death of Kelley Stage Clayton more than a year earlier, granted an interview to ABC's 20/20 as part of a two-hour program that revisited the highly-publicized case.

The show, titled "What the Little Girl Saw," aired Jan. 20 on ABC affiliates nationwide.

Beard, who initially confessed to the murder and told police Kelley's husband, Thomas, offered to pay him to kill his wife, later recanted and claimed he was hired only to burn the house down for insurance money, and that Kelley was already dead when he arrived.

He said he asked for the 20/20 interview to set the record straight, claiming he was set up — by both Clayton and the police — and that he had nothing to do with her death.

"I go down there, get the key, open the door and get the shock of my life," Beard told the interviewer. "I seen her (Kelley) laying on the floor."

A murder that shocked and gripped the Southern Tier

It was shortly after midnight Sept. 29, 2015 when the Steuben County 911 center received a frantic call from Thomas Clayton, informing them his wife was dead.

By the end of the day, police had charged Clayton with second-degree murder for his wife's death, before a family member of Kelley's mentioned another name — Michael Beard.

Beard had recently been fired as a laborer with a Horseheads franchise of ServPro, a company that specializes in home remediation after fires or floods. Clayton was operations manager for the local franchise, and Beard had also previously worked for him at another business.

Beard initially denied any involvement in the murder, but he eventually confessed, and said Clayton offered him $10,000 to kill Kelley and burn down his Town of Caton home for insurance money.

The revelation led prosecutors to consider Kelley's death a murder for hire, enabling them to charge both Beard and Clayton with first-degree murder.

Beard later changed his story, but ample forensic evidence, including the presence of his DNA on the murder weapon, led a jury to convict him on all charges following a two-week trial.

The case against Clayton was more complicated.

Chemung County District Attorney and special prosecutor Weeden Wetmore couldn't use Beard's confession or call him to testify against Clayton because he had changed his story.

So Wetmore had to rely on a mountain of circumstantial evidence and testimony during a lengthy trial. It took the jury only six hours to come back with a guilty verdict on all charges.

More:10 things to know about the Thomas Clayton murder-for-hire case

More:Thomas Clayton and Kelley Clayton case: The anatomy of a murder

Michael Beard speaks out

The 20/20 segment focused on the story of Clayton's young daughter Charlie, who witnessed her mother's murder.

But it also gave a rare public voice to Beard, who said his relationship with Thomas Clayton was mostly work-related, adding he did spend a fair amount of time at Clayton's home performing various tasks.

"There were a few times she wanted to go pay bills or something and the kids didn't want to go. I'd watch them until she got back," he said. "That gave me time to quit working plus I'm getting paid to do it, so it was pretty cool. I basically seen them grow up."

Beard, who has changed his story about what happened the night of Kelley Clayton's murder a few times, now says Thomas Clayton didn't ask him to do anything illegal.

More:Appeals court upholds Michael Beard first-degree murder conviction, dismisses other counts

Beard told interviewers Clayton, who was also Beard's landlord, knew he was broke and merely offered him some work. He asked Beard to meet him late at night at the Clayton home, according to Beard.

"It was not a proposal of anything like they portrayed it. It was just a proposal that asked me if I wanted to take a side job," Beard said. "Being a 24/7 restoration company, calls came in at any time. I've been to (Clayton's) house at like 3 o'clock in the morning."

Beard said when he entered and saw Kelley's body, he didn't check to see if she was alive or call for help.

He said he knew what it would look like — a Black man in a white woman's house in the middle of the night with her lying dead on the floor.

"I got scared at that point, which I'm not using for an excuse, but I never called 911 that night," Beard said. "I wanted to get out of that situation. I walked into something that had nothing to do with me. I didn't expect to walk into what I walked into."

Beard also said he encountered another person in the Clayton house, but he couldn't see the person's face, even though he "knocked him down getting past him."

When asked why he signed a confession if he didn't kill Kelley, Beard said those weren't his words, but most of it was written by investigators, and he thought it would go easier on his family if he confessed.

Looking back, he also believes Clayton arranged the whole late-night meeting to implicate him in Kelley's death.

The aftermath of the Clayton case

Both Clayton and Beard were sentenced to life in prison without parole following their convictions. Each has exhausted appeals of their verdicts.

Family members of Kelley Clayton told 20/20 her children Charlie, who was 7 at the time of the murder, and Cullen, who was then 3, are doing well, considering all they've been through.

Many organizations used the Clayton case to highlight the problem of domestic violence, and during and after Thomas Clayton's trial, purple ribbons and "Justice for Kelley" signs dotted the landscape.

The Clayton murder case has been the subject of numerous national broadcasts, including news magazine programs aired on ABC, CNN and Headline News Network.

Beard is serving his life sentence at the Auburn Correctional Facility. Clayton, who reportedly declined to be interviewed for the 20/20 program, is incarcerated at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York.

To watch the recent 20/20 episode on the Clayton case, go to abc.com/shows/2020/episode-guide/2023-01/20-what-the-little-girl-saw.

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This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: Kelley Clayton killer Michael Beard speaks out on ABC's 20/20