Parties prepare for capital murder trial in 1995 slaying

It’s taken nearly 30 years to get the case to court, and prosecutors report that it will take several weeks to lay out the evidence charging Clayton Bernard Foreman with the 1995 murder of a beloved school teacher that went unsolved for decades.

Cold case detectives, aided by technological advancements, arrested and subsequently indicted Foreman in 2021 for the Jan. 14, 1995, murder of Mary Catherine Edwards, 31.

According to Jefferson County First Assistant District Attorney Pat Knauth, who will serve as a prosecutor on the Foreman trial, the state is expected to call 73 witnesses during the proceedings. Also assisting in the case, the DA’s office reports, are Mike Laird and Sonny Eckhart, who will serve as the lead prosecutor during the trial, he said.

“We need four weeks, for sure,” Eckhart said, to present the 70-plus witnesses, as well as enter evidentiary exhibits. “The state’s case is massive.”

The age of the case and, now, the age of some of the witnesses have been hurdles prosecutors are continuing to maneuver even as trial was set to begin in just days.

As detailed in a court proceeding the week of March 5 before Criminal District Court Judge John Stevens, who is presiding over the capital murder case, at least one witness is in ailing health and requested to appear to testify via Zoom videoconference.

Dr. Charles Harvey, the original forensic pathologist in the 1995 case, reported he is unable to travel to town for court – but is willing to present what he knows before a jury. According to Harvey’s doctor, the witness “is physically unable to travel the distance to Beaumont without giving him health risks.”

Over strenuous objections from the defense, Stevens elected to allow the videoconference testimony to proceed.

“There are certain times when preserving health, preserving life…” outweighs the defendant’s right to see the witness in person, Stevens ruled.

Harvey and several dozen other witnesses will be called to the stand beginning next week, with Foreman’s trial to commence March 11 with jury selection.

From cold case to criminal court

Mary Ann and Lum Caswell Edwards Jr., concerned about the welfare of their 31-year-old daughter, Mary Catherine Edwards, arrived at her Park Meadow townhome in January 1995 to discover a bloody crime scene and the lifeless body of their baby, seen by the rest of the world as an esteemed teacher at Price Elementary. Neither parent can tell jurors of their horror; both have since died.

According to a statement by 30-year Texas Ranger Brandon Bess with the Unsolved Crimes Investigation Program, Edwards lived alone, and the day of her death was normal other than the extreme violence that ended her life. Bess reported that Edwards had arrived home after a routine day, walked her dog, had a glass of wine, and talked to her boyfriend on the phone, which was the last reported contact before her death.

When Edwards’ parents arrived, they would have taken in a scene worse than any nightmare, as authorities would later reveal that Edwards was subjected to various assaults during her encounter with her murderer.

As recited in the official grand jury indictment returned against Foreman, the cause of Edwards’ death was drowning and asphyxiation; evidence additionally supported Edwards had been sexually assaulted, as well. DNA evidence, not as technologically decipherable in the 1990s, was gathered from the scene, prompting extensive investigation that spanned the next couple of decades. Over the ensuing 26 years, Beaumont Police investigators collaborated with the Texas Rangers, FBI and the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office to pursue leads and vet DNA matches.

In 2020, the local collective of investigators sought the expertise of forensic scientists to reevaluate DNA evidence from the crime scene. Leveraging technological progress, investigators successfully matched the DNA profile from semen found on Edwards’ body to a suspect by employing DNA samples and kinship testing to construct a family tree using samples from those proving to be blood relatives of the person who had committed the crime.

The long and scientific process led detective to Foreman, then living in Ohio. Foreman had previously been convicted of a similar sexual assault, for which he pleaded guilty and received a three-year probation sentence.

With the aid of the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office, an arrest warrant was secured, and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Aviation Unit transported investigators to Reynoldsburg, Ohio, where Foreman was apprehended and subsequently extradited to Jefferson County, where he remains in custody.

Sept. 22, 2021, Foreman was indicted for the capital murder of Edwards. Foreman, a 1978 graduate of Beaumont’s Forest Park High School, now West Brook High School, reportedly had familiarity with Edwards, a 1981 Forest Park High School alumna who had served as a bridesmaid in Foreman’s first wedding.

The state is not pursuing the death penalty. If convicted, Foreman could face a life sentence.

Continuing comprehensive trial coverage of the man accused in Edwards’ murder will be detailed in The Examiner as the weeks of testimony continue.