31 Facts About Barry Beach

Barry Allan Beach was born on February 15,1962 and is an American who was sentenced to 100 years in prison without parole in 1984 for the 1979 murder of Kimberly Nees in Poplar, Montana.

Barry Beach's case was partly responsible for the development of Montana House Bill 43, passed on January 23,2015, which grants the Governor of Montana the right to approve clemency for convicts without approval from the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole.

Barry Beach was one of the people questioned by police for the murder but no charges were filed against him at the time.

In 1983, Barry Beach's stepmother called the police, claiming Barry Beach had helped his stepsister skip school.

Police in Monroe, Louisiana, arrested Barry Beach for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Police discovered that Barry Beach had been questioned for Nees' murder and interrogated him about the local murder of three women.

Barry Beach was later cleared of the Louisiana murders because he was not in the state at the time of the crimes.

Barry Beach pleaded not guilty during his trial in 1984 in Glasgow, Montana, arguing that his confession was coerced.

Barry Beach said that the bloody palm print found on the truck might have belonged to Nees to explain why the print did not belong to Beach.

The tape of Barry Beach's confession had been erased and thus could not be heard during Barry Beach's trial.

Barry Beach said Nees was wearing a brown sports jacket and plaid blouse.

The detective denied any wrongdoing, but some believe that Barry Beach was fed details of the murder to make his confession more convincing.

Barry Beach confessed to putting Nees' body in a garbage bag feet first and then dragging her body to the river by her shoulders.

Barry Beach's confession indicated that he threw the murder weapons and keys to the truck into the Poplar River; however, the river was searched by divers on several occasions and none of these items were found in or near the river.

Crime scene reports indicated that the truck at the scene of the crime was parked 257 feet away from the Poplar River, but Barry Beach reported that Kim's truck was parked right by the river.

Barry Beach said that he wasn't sure if Kim was bleeding after the attack, but the crime scene indicated considerable bleeding, both inside and out of the truck.

Barry Beach claimed that after the murder, he wiped his fingerprints from the truck, but many fingerprints, four palm prints and one bloody palm print were found on the truck, none of which belonged to Nees or Barry Beach.

Finally, Barry Beach said that Nees tried to escape from the driver's side door, but the bloody palm print was on the passenger's side.

Barry Beach claimed that he gave the confession because he had been instructed to do so and was told that he could prove his innocence later when he was transported back to Montana.

Barry Beach requested help from Centurion Ministries, who agreed to research his case after their investigators reviewed the facts of the case and noticed an absence of physical evidence that tied Barry Beach to the murder, despite the abundance of evidence collected at the crime scene.

Barry Beach's lawyers called new witnesses that had come forward after the airing of Dateline's special.

Barry Beach said she then saw a patrol car pull up to the scene of the crime after the murder.

Montana Attorney General claimed that none of the evidence exonerated Barry Beach or suggested multiple attackers were involved.

Barry Beach was released from prison to the custody of Billings businessman James "Ziggy" Ziegler, who had met Barry Beach through prison prayer service.

Hours after the ruling, after nearly three decades behind bars, Barry Beach was free on his own recognizance, pending a new trial.

In Billings, Barry Beach started his own maintenance company and then became the head of maintenance at a hotel.

Barry Beach thus was not granted a new trial and was ordered to resume his life sentence immediately.

In October 2014, Barry Beach's attorneys asked Montana's Supreme Court to order that Barry Beach be resentenced.

The Supreme Court asked the State to respond to his attorneys' claim that Barry Beach's 100-year sentence is illegal because the trial court did not consider that Barry Beach was a minor at the time of Nees' killing and because it leaves no opportunity for release.

The bill, which grew out of Barry Beach's case, says the governor can consider any clemency application regardless of the board's recommendation.

Barry Beach's sentence was reduced by Montana Governor Steve Bullock on November 20,2015.