KC defendant charged in 5 slayings

? A man charged with killing five people in a four-day span in 1999 described what happened in a videotaped confession played in court at a hearing on a motion to keep the state from using it at his trial.

Early in the tape played Wednesday in Jackson County Circuit Court, defendant Gary Beach snapped his fingers and said, “You know, my mind went just like that.”

Lawyers for the 59-year-old Beach have asked Judge Charles Atwell to supress Beach’s statements to police. They contend the police took advantage of a mentally ill and suicidal man, but a police officer testified that Beach insisted on giving his account.

The state is seeking the death penalty against Beach, whose trial is scheduled to start March 11.

The defense does not dispute that Beach was the killer but contends mental illness kept him from acting with the cool reflection required for a first-degree murder conviction and execution.

In the videotape, Beach said he was angry because Christopher Conrad, 27, of Overland Park, Kan., had been going to Beach’s house to smoke crack cocaine with Beach’s roommate, Mark Nelson, 28. Beach’s stepson, Michael Davis, 32, also lived at the house.

Beach said he decided he had to kill Nelson and Davis before he killed Conrad.

“I actually, through some crazy thought in my mind, thought I was protecting Michael and Mark from the shame of what I was going to do,” he told police.

Beach first shot Nelson while the two were alone in the house.

“Mark looked at me and I just shot him” in the head, Beach said. He said Nelson was still alive so he shot him “a couple of more times.”

When Davis, the stepson, returned home, Beach said he shot him in the temple as he walked in the door.

“He looked at me and said, ‘Dad,’ and I fired, shot him again,” Beach said. Davis tumbled into the basement, where Beach repeatedly hit him with a hammer.

“I kind of went bonkers on Mike because I love him so much. … I was in a stupid fog from then on out,” Beach said.

Later that night, Beach said, Conrad arrived and went into the kitchen to inject drugs. Beach said he shot him several times.

“I just thought he was a snake, and it didn’t bother me in the least at that point,” he said.

The next day Beach shot his friend Jerry Nickerson, 61, of Kansas City, when he used a key to let himself into the house and found Nelson’s body in the kitchen.

“He walked in at the wrong time, and I didn’t know anything else to do,” Beach said. “I shot him.”

Late the next day Beach got a call from Kenneth Gulley Jr., 45, of Independence, Mo., the stepson of Beach’s brother. Beach said he picked Gulley up at work, drank with him and took him to his home with no intention of killing him.

But, Beach said, he shot Gulley the next day when Gulley loaded a crack cocaine pipe.

“It’s like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was in me  it just sent me into orbit,” Beach told the police. “The next thing I know, pow, pow.”