Execution Date Set for Tyler Killer

TYLER — A Smith County man has been sentenced to die next month for strangling his mother over 11 years ago. During a court hearing on Monday, Tracy Beatty, 54, of Whitehouse, was sentenced to die on August 13th for capital murder. All of his appeals have been exhausted. Beatty went to the high court after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last summer rejected arguments he had deficient legal help at his 2004 trial in Tyler for the slaying of Carolyn Click, 62. The Supreme Court refused his appeal without comment. Beatty had been paroled to his mother’s home in Tyler from a 15-year prison term for theft from Dallas County. He is said to have strangled her, leaving her body in the bathtub at her home for two days, and then burying her in her backyard. When arrested for her slaying, he already was in jail for auto theft and weapons possession.