A Lawrence man charged with first-degree murder in connection with the stabbing death of a female friend had a jovial but volatile relationship with the victim, according to testimony during a preliminary hearing on Monday.

Julius Robert Beasley, 40, Lawrence, was charged with first-degree murder and interference with law enforcement in connection with the Feb. 22 stabbing death of Crystal Marie White. White, who had been experiencing homelessness, was found dead in her tent near 100 Maple Street on her 51st birthday.

Multiple witnesses testified to seeing White and Beasley interact playfully prior to White’s death. The two had reportedly been friends for years.

The victim’s daughter, Precious White Garrett, said Beasley and White spent quite a bit of time together, joking roughly enough that White had apparently used scissors to stab Beasley in the arm in October 2023.

“They would kind of play fight,” Garrett said. “He knew how to push her buttons, and she knew how to push his.”

Garrett was one of 11 people called to testify at the preliminary hearing by Deputy District Attorney David Greenwald. All of the people who testified were experiencing homelessness at the time of the incident. All but one were living at an encampment along the Kansas River levee in North Lawrence.

William Pelton testified that it had been his practice to go from tent to tent checking on individuals during the coldest months of the winter. He said he would “holler and look in” if he didn’t get a response from a resident. On the night of the stabbing, Pelton said he was called to White’s tent after another camp resident discovered White unresponsive on her cot.

Pelton said he checked for a pulse and realized White would need a defibrillator. When emergency responders arrived, Pelton shared that information and helped clear a path to White’s bed.

Pelton said he didn’t realize White had been stabbed until paramedics cut White’s shirt open.

“I seen that there was three or four stab wounds going across the chest left to right,” he said.

Multiple camp members tried to assist White on the night she died. Pelton said pulling together was a way of life in the camp.

“With the homeless people, everybody tries to help each other as best they can,” Pelton said.

Brad Wilson testified that he and White had become close friends in the two years they knew each other. He said he spoke with White on the afternoon of Feb. 21 as he worked his way through camp speaking with residents at their tents.

Wilson said he was also called to White’s tent before sunrise the next morning. When he entered the tent he said he found White unconscious and positioned partially off her cot. He said Beasley was sitting in a chair near White’s bed.

To begin chest compressions, Wilson sought help from Beasley to get White squarely back onto the cot. Beasley told Wilson that White still had a pulse. Wilson began chest compressions and continued for 20-25 minutes until emergency responders arrived. Once he stopped his efforts, Wilson said he noticed that Beasley was gone, but at the time he didn’t think much about it.

“I felt like he was kind of off, but I wasn’t worried about that,” Wilson testified.

Defense attorney Angela Keck asked Wilson if he had noticed any blood on Beasley or on White as he did chest compressions. Wilson said he didn’t see blood on either, and White’s shirt felt dry to the touch. Wilson said that after finishing chest compressions he also had no blood on his hands.

Lindsey Ebenstein called White her “street mom” and said the two had been friends for about two years. She said that on Feb. 21, she spent the night hanging out in White’s tent with Beasley and two other camp residents. Ebenstein testified that the group was smoking K2, a synthetic drug designed to mimic the effects of marijuana. Ebenstein said she and White were also using methamphetamine intravenously.

Sometime before sunrise Ebenstein left the tent. Not long after she heard a commotion and was told to retrieve a cell phone.

“I heard screaming and sirens, so I ran to see what was going on,” Ebenstein said. “I followed the screams.”

Ray Elder said Beasley and White were among a small group of people he had prepared food for about a week before the stabbing. He said he had witnessed White and Beasley “laughing and joking around.”

Elder said his tent was located near White’s. He said she could easily be heard yelling and talking to people in the camp. Elder said he awakened in the early morning hours of Feb. 22 and heard White saying “ow” and telling someone they were hurting her. He didn’t get up, however, because there was no commotion and no panic in White’s voice.

“It sounded almost more like somebody was twisting her arm,” Elder said. “You hear things down there a lot worse than that. This sounded more like horseplay.”

A little later, Elder said he heard White’s voice become more serious. He said he heard White tell the other person to stop doing what they were doing before asking them to leave.

Elder said muffled sounds indicated someone was exiting White’s tent. Then he heard White calling out for Boom, the nickname of her fiance, George Walker Jr.

James Richard and Bailea Chapman both testified that they were with a few people listening to music in Chapman’s tent late into the night before White was killed. Chapman’s tent was located directly across from White’s, only a few feet away.

Richard, who along with Chapman also counted himself among White’s adopted street family, said the music in the tent was “basically as loud as a concert,” but said he was still able to hear White in her own tent asking someone why they had stabbed her.

Richard testified that after hearing White’s comments about being stabbed, he sat frozen for approximately 20 minutes. Then he left Chapman’s tent and said he nearly ran into Beasley, who appeared to be filled with “rage and anger and hatred.”

“I asked him what happened,” Richard said. “He couldn’t look me in the eye or answer me at all.”

Richard said he didn’t go into White’s tent to check on her. He also testified that he saw no blood on Beasley as he exited the tent.

On cross-examination, Richard told Keck that Beasley had punched him in the kidney after accusing Richard of stealing some of Beasley’s medications. He said White had told him she would speak with Beasley and handle the situation. Richard said he wasn’t angry with Beasley on Feb. 22.

“I don’t hold grudges,” Richard said.

Chapman was one of several witnesses who said they were summoned to White’s tent by Christie Glover, although it is unclear how Glover came to be aware of White’s physical state.  

Chapman said when she arrived inside the tent Beasley appeared to be pulling White’s covers up to her collar bone.

“I guess he was tucking her in almost,” Chapman said. “Then I stepped back and told Christie she needed to call 911.”

Walker, White’s fiance, said that although it was White’s birthday, he left North Lawrence during the afternoon of Feb. 21 to go chop firewood with another man near the encampment at Burcham Park. While there, Walker said he spent several hours at a female friend’s tent.

Walker testified that at 10 p.m., a friend told him White wanted him to come back to the North Lawrence camp, but Walker said he didn’t leave until several hours later. While on the path back to the bridge, Walker’s friend returned to tell him White had been found unresponsive.

Walker, whose bike cart had broken under the weight of the wood he had gathered, finished making a repair before heading back.

“I had to finish up fixing my cart,” Walker said. “It took 10 or 15 more minutes.”

White’s daughter Garrett also said she delayed going to her mother’s tent after first receiving word from Chapman that her mother had been found passed out. Garrett said she thought her mother had smoked too much K2, which had happened about two weeks earlier.

Garrett said her mother used K2 and methamphetamine regularly.

“It was kind of a consistent thing,” Garrett said. “She was really sick and it was the only thing that would get her through her day.”

Garrett said that a little while later, Glover came to her tent to tell her White was unresponsive. It was then that Garrett got dressed to walk the hundred yards to her mother’s location.

“My mom was laying outside of her tent with a sheet over her,” Garrett testified as she choked back tears. “There was a crowd of people and they were all just kind of standing around in a circle.”

Garrett said she received several pieces of evidence in the days following her mother’s death. One friend found a pair of shoes hanging under the bridge to North Lawrence that appeared to match a pair of shoes Garrett had purchased for Beasley on Valentine’s Day.

Three days after the stabbing Glover brought a knife in a backpack to the tent Garrett shared with her own fiance, Vance Swallow. Garrett testified that Swallow told her the knife had blood on it. Garrett and Swallow turned the knife over to investigators.

Swallow testified that he collected knives and had, in fact, given a friend a utility knife as collateral for beer on the night White died. After the commotion began, the friend returned Swallow’s knife and left the area before emergency responders arrived.

“I guess he got yelled at by somebody and took off,” Swallow said.

Elder, who was among the first people to discover White’s body, said he located another knife while picking up trash in a grassy area near the campsite.

The knife, which was later given to police, was entirely black except for decorative white lettering on the blade that said “Enjoy Life it’s Delicious.”

At the end of testimony on Monday, Greenwald told District Court Judge Stacey Donovan that he would need another half day to present law enforcement witnesses. Donovan scheduled the second half of the preliminary hearing at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30.

The prosecution is being supported by Assistant DA Samantha Foster. Keck is defending Beasley with co-counsel Branden Smith.

Beasley remains in custody of the Douglas County Jail on a $500,000 bond.

Arrestees and defendants in criminal cases should be presumed not guilty unless they are convicted.

Andrea Albright (she/her), reporter, can be reached at aalbright (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.

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