CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – A tearful daughter, a trail of evidence along Interstate 24 and graphic autopsy findings took center stage Wednesday as testimony continued in the 2021 Eagle View Drive murder trial.
The victim, 40-year-old Trasbin Campbell, was found shot and stabbed inside his girlfriend’s home in the early morning hours of March 27, 2021. John Edward Bean IV, 44, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Daughter says Bean asked her to plant tracker
Jonae Bean, the defendant’s now-19-year-old daughter, told jurors that on Feb. 28, 2021, her father made a troubling request. “He told me to do a favor for him,” she said, tearing up. “To put the tracker in my mom’s car. … It was a black, small piece.”
Jonae said she told her older sister, and the two instead gave the device to their mother, Erica Lee. Lee previously testified this incident prompted her to file for an order of protection.
On March, 26, 2021, Jonae was scheduled to stay with Bean in Nashville. She testified that Bean called her ahead of the visit. “He called and told me to make sure I had everything, and to make sure I had my hat and my key with me,” she said. She told jurors she brought it with her.
After Lee dropped her off with Bean at a gas station in Nashville, Jonae said she and Bean made a stop at her paternal grandparents’ house, where he retrieved some clothes. “He brought out black clothes from the house,” she said. She testified that they stayed in the car after arriving at the hotel.
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Jonae said Bean was wearing a yellow shirt and jeans that night and was driving a white Chevy Malibu. She said she left her house key in her bag unattended near the hotel room entrance and went to bed around 11 p.m. She woke up around 5 a.m. to a phone call from her older sister and noticed Bean was not in the hotel room. She said he returned a few minutes later.
Police arrived shortly afterward. Jonae said officers interviewed her and Bean separately, and that Bean texted her during the interview. However, she did not disclose the content of the message.
Officers describe shooting scene, evidence trail
Clarksville Police Detective Jason Kurtich testified that he responded to the Eagle View Drive home on March 27, 2021. He said he found a bullet that had travelled through the mattress and lodged in the box spring on the bottom, as well as another bullet in the bathroom. He noted that the backyard had a wooden privacy fence about 6 feet tall and that the back gate was open when he arrived.
Police Sgt. Daniel Binkley, a crime scene technician on the scene, testified that officers found a bullet and a shell casing on the master bedroom floor. Two additional bullets were found in the yard, along with a footprint in the mud by the open gate. He said no mud was found inside the home.
Detective Bruce Kilby testified that after officers found Lee’s phone along eastbound Interstate 24 toward Nashville, he kept searching the area and found a folding knife.
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Former CPD Detective Nathan Lee testified that he interviewed Jonae at the hotel and collected her house key. He said he noticed a “small amount of a reddish-brown substance” on that key that he believed could be blood.
Detective Xavier Graves, a CPD crime scene technician, testified that he searched Bean’s white Chevy Malibu. He told jurors he collected a black ZTE cell phone, a ski mask, three black hoodies, a black T-shirt that read “Culinary Team” from Top Golf, black pants and latex gloves. He also recovered four small black tracking devices. Graves said he did not recall seeing blood in or on the vehicle.
Medical examiner details fatal injuries
Dr. Shannon Crook, a forensic pathologist with the Davidson County Medical Examiner’s Office, performed the autopsy on Campbell. Jurors were shown photos of Campbell’s injuries as Crook explained the findings.
She testified that Campbell sustained four gunshot wounds, four stab wounds and blunt force trauma to the face. Two injuries were independently fatal: a gunshot wound to the head and a stab wound that hit the right jugular vein.
Crook said she could not determine the exact size of the knife used. She explained that the jugular vein could cause rapid blood loss. “This venous system is a lower pressure system. So blood will pour out, but it’s not going to spurt out,” she said. Even so, she testified that a person could bleed out in minutes from such a wound.
Court recessed Wednesday afternoon and will resume Thursday at 8:30 a.m. at the Montgomery County Courts Center.
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