Jim Hood Kills Bruce Beauchamp After Spouse Bonnie’s Homicide

For Californians looking for to get out of the massive metropolis, the distant Camp Nelson in Tulare County  supplied an ideal escape.

Bonnie and Jim Hood purchased the place within the late Eighties. The country retreat grew to become her essential residence and enterprise focus, whereas her husband, a developer, stayed in Newport Seaside.

However on August 19, 1990, following a lavish wedding ceremony get together held on the lodge, Bonnie, 46, was shot and killed in her cabin at round 3 within the morning.

Rudy Guide, the lodge groundskeeper, was additionally within the room. He had been wounded however was capable of cellphone for assist and stated the shooter was driving a purple Jeep.

Investigators combed via the crime scene, amassing blood proof and fingerprints. That they had quite a few questions: Who would shoot Bonnie? And why was Manuel, who was additionally married, within the room?

“Bonnie was carrying a light-weight brown negligee with a lace inset [at the time of her murder],”  Helen Erb, an area businesswoman, informed “Murdered By Morning,” airing Saturdays at 8/7c on Oxygen. 

Manuel admitted to police he and Bonnie have been having an affair. By his account, he was looking for a divorce. His shut relationship together with his boss “was not a secret up there,” stated Juan Morales, former detective with the Tulare County Sheriff’s Workplace.

Manuel retraced the occasions of the night for detectives. He claimed that shortly listening to a noise outdoors, the door to Bonnie’s cabin burst open. An unknown white male intruder round 30 years previous rushed in and demanded cash, presumably referring to suggestions from the marriage get together. When Manuel stated there was no cash, he was shot. He then heard the gunman inform Bonnie, “I do know you, bitch,” earlier than taking pictures her level clean, Camp Nelson resident Tinker Lindsay informed producers. 

That element indicated to investigators that the motive perhaps wasn’t a theft, however might be a premeditated hit.

When Jim Hood arrived on the lodge, he informed authorities he and Bonnie had a robust marriage and that he was unaware of the affair. He had a principle that the perpetrator was somebody Bonnie had crossed who had a grudge towards her. 

Might somebody have held a vendetta towards Bonnie? Investigators thought-about and ultimately cleared an area livestock rancher who reportedly had a working feud with Rudy Manuel as a potential suspect. 

Scott Wallen, a good friend of Bonnie’s, informed authorities that he noticed a person who’d stayed late after the marriage get together who he didn’t know. He recalled that the stranger was lacking a tooth and was ingesting a Budweiser. The lodge bartender additionally stated that the stranger had been eating alone, in response to Morales. After the person left, the bartender positioned the beer bottle behind the bar. It was collected and despatched to be examined for latent fingerprints.

The fingerprint on the beer bottle turned out to belong to Bruce Beauchamp, who lived in Fontana, California and had a felony historical past. 

By means of a photograph array, Manuel recognized Beauchamp as the person who shot him and Bonnie, in response to investigators.

Detectives questioned Beauchamp, who admitted that he had gone to Camp Nelson for some relaxation and rest on the evening of the massive wedding ceremony get together. He was requested particularly if he knew Bonnie Hood, and he stated he did not actually know her. He denied seeing her the evening she was shot, and his account of the night matched what different witnesses had informed detectives. 

A search of Beauchamp’s residence turned up a receipt for a pair of footwear whose prints matched ones discovered on the crime scene. Beauchamp was arrested and charged with homicide and tried homicide, stated Morales. 

However as investigators dug deeper, they turned up a stunning direct connection to the sufferer. Beauchamp labored development for Jim Hood. Had this been a contract homicide? Was Bonnie’s husband concerned indirectly? Investigators thought-about the various prospects.

Nonetheless, the proof was solely circumstantial. Jim Hood was by no means charged in reference to Bonnie’s demise.

Prosecutors confronted a troublesome case towards Beauchamp. There was no bodily proof connecting him to the crime, in order that they relied closely on Manuel’s testimony. However on the trial in January 1991, Manuel denied his relationship with Bonnie.

“That meant that all the pieces he stated after that was suspect,” stated Lindsay. 

After a brief trial, Beauchamp was acquitted of homicide and tried homicide.

On March 22, 1992, the case took a weird twist. Bruce Beauchamp was shot to demise by Jim Hood in his workplace.

Jim claimed that he shot his former worker in self-defense, however proof on the scene together with the place of the sufferer’s physique and his gun in addition to blood spatter indicated in any other case.

Beauchamp “had been shot seven occasions,” stated Brian English, former supervising murder detective with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Workplace. “That’s not a self-defense, that’s a homicide.”

Jim Hood was arrested for first-degree homicide. Prosecutors’ unproven principle was that Jim was behind his spouse’s hit-for-hire as a result of she seemed to be prepared to depart the wedding and he confronted monetary points, and he killed Hood to keep away from the key being revealed.

After Beauchamp’s demise, his widow claimed that he informed her he was paid $50,000 by James Hood to commit the crime, the Los Angeles Instances reported.

In October 1992, Jim Hood’s trial resulted in a hung jury. In June 1993, his second trial started. When he took the stand he modified his story about his lethal encounter with Beauchamp — allegedly as a result of he’d heard testimony at his first trial stating that his unique model of the occasions have been unattainable.

Jurors from the primary trial have been introduced in to testify that Jim modified his account. In February 1994 he was discovered responsible of homicide and was ultimately sentenced to 27 years to life for homicide and two further years to be used of a firearm.

He served 23 years earlier than being paroled on April 23, 2017, in response to “Murdered By Morning.” He’s by no means been prosecuted for Bonnie’s demise and the hit-for-hire plot has by no means been confirmed.

To study extra in regards to the case, watch  “Murdered By Morning,” airing Saturdays at 8/7c on Oxygen.