A North Texas woman has received two life sentences in federal court for helping her former fiancé, Andrew Beard, orchestrate the harassment and killing of his ex-girlfriend over a custody battle, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of Texas said.
A judge sentenced 33-year-old Holly Ann Elkins on Thursday in the October 2020 killing of 24-year-old Alyssa Burkett in Carrollton. She is appealing the sentence.
For months, the couple “relentlessly harassed” Burkett, calling her “despicable names,” filing false police reports and putting contraband in her vehicle, said U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton in a written statement. When that failed, she said they “plotted a particularly painful and bloody death.”
Brett Ordiway, one of Elkins’ attorneys, filed a notice of appeal on Friday.
“Andrew Beard murdered Alyssa Burkett, and he now serves a 43-year sentence,” Ordiway said in an emailed statement. “Holly’s stacked life sentences are every bit as unjust as her convictions, and we look forward to winning on appeal.”
A jury found Elkins guilty in April of conspiracy to stalk, stalking using a dangerous weapon resulting in death, and brandishing a firearm.
Beard, 37, pleaded guilty in June 2022 to cyberstalking, using a dangerous weapon resulting in death and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence andreceived a 43-year federal prison sentence . He still faces a Dallas County murder charge in connection with the killing, online records show.
Beard admitted in plea papers he was trying to gain custody of his daughter with Burkett, who was 1 year old at the time.
Evidence presented at trial showed Elkins helped plot the killing of Burkett, with prosecutors arguing she “dreamt of a life” with Beard and a mother-daughter relationship with his child, the attorney’s office said in a news release.
Elkins attempted to call into question Burkett’s fitness as a parent and goaded Beard into taking Burkett’s life.
Elkins and Beard began a relationship in April 2020, and later that month she spent her first weekend with Beard and his daughter. By May, the couple was shopping for engagement rings, according to the attorney’s office.
Elkins moved into Beard’s home in the summer and began working to harass Burkett soon after. Prosecutors said she had grown frustrated with Beard and Burkett, writing in June that “your BM [baby mamma] owns you” and “you choose to be idk for lack of a better term submissive to her,” among other messages.
Elkins and Beard conspired to put a GPS tracker on Burkett’s car, and about a month later, Elkins called 911 under a fake name, falsely reporting the car as driving erratically.
In August, Elkins made scratches on her own chest and falsely reported that Burkett’s mother had attacked her. Elkins and Beard also paid a private investigator — who testified in court that he found nothing incriminating — to “dig up dirt” on Burkett and her new boyfriend, according to the attorney’s office.
In September, Elkins helped Beard plant drugs and a gun in Burkett’s car before he called police using a fake name and claimed that Burkett was selling drugs to Black men, prosecutors said. That month, Elkins and Beard bought a rainsuit, shotgun shells and a knife. Elkins bought dark makeup from a drugstore.
A week before the killing, Elkins texted Beard “I hope you handle it” and asked he be “ride or die” for her, adding that if he wasn’t, she wasn’t sure the relationship could continue. Google records show that soon after, Beard searched for how to remove gunpowder from his hands, the attorney’s office said.
Beard, dressed in a black rainsuit and “disguised as a Black man,” shot Burkett on Oct. 2, 2020, as she sat in her car outside of her job. She staggered out of the car and Beard grabbed her, stabbing her 44 times, according to the attorney’s office.
Police have also suggested in an arrest-warrant affidavit that Beard, who is white, disguised himself as a Black man in the attack, with some witnesses describing the suspect as a Black man. Dark liquid foundation and a fake beard were found in cars police believed belonged to Beard.
Elkins had stayed at Beard’s home in Rockwall with the daughter during the attack, and in an attempt to establish an alibi, claimed that he had been home with her during the killing, the attorney’s office said.
Burkett’s coworkers testified that they found her outside the office front door and she died as they tried to render aid. Burkett’s new boyfriend testified that he believed Elkins was the “puppet master” in the killing, prosecutors said.
Elkins’ two life sentences on Thursday were given consecutively, the attorney’s office said.
“We can never bring back what Ms. Burkett’s family has lost,” Simonton, the U.S. attorney said. “We can never heal the pain her young daughter has had to endure. But we can give them this measure of justice. Holly Elkins and Andrew Beard will never terrorize their family again.”