From left, Robby Beasley and Elijah McKay have been charged with murder and special allegations for the Jan. 22, 2010, murders of Yvette and Frank Maddox, whose bodies were found in early March near Lower Lake, Calif. Lake County Jail booking photos.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Two men have been charged in the January murders of a Maine couple in what could end up being a death penalty case.

On Wednesday morning, Robby Alan Beasley, 30, was arraigned before Judge Richard Martin in Lake County Superior Court's Lakeport branch.

Beasley, who is from Maine, and 28-year-old Elijah Bae McKay of Lower Lake are each charged with two counts of homicide for the Jan. 22 murders of Yvette Maddox, 40, and her husband Frank Maddox, 32.

McKay is due to be arraigned Thursday morning, officials reported.

The partially decomposed bodies of the Maddoxes were found at the bottom off an embankment off of Morgan Valley Road near Lower Lake on March 4 by a pair of Sonoma County men traveling through the area, as Lake County News has reported.

The sheriff's office said an autopsy revealed the two had both sustained gunshot wounds, as well as other unspecified injuries.

In addition to the murder charges, Beasley and McKay also face special allegations of committing multiple murders in the first or second degree, committing the offenses with the intent to inflict great bodily injury on the victims and using a 9 millimeter firearm in the killings.

Beasley is further alleged to have a prior serious or violent felony conviction. Court records show that in June 2007 he was convicted in Kennebec County, Maine, of criminal threatening with a firearm.

Beasley, who has been in custody since March 6, only nodded when Judge Martin asked if he understood the charges.

The judge told him he had to speak for the record, not just nod. Beasley answered with a barely audible “yes” when asked if he wanted the court to appoint an attorney.

Martin appointed attorney Stephen Carter to represent Beasley, who is scheduled to return to court Friday morning before Judge Andrew Blum.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Art Grothe asked Martin to hold Beasley without bail.

“As it's charged right now, it's a capital matter,” Grothe said as several Lake County Sheriff's detectives looked on from the gallery.

Martin agreed to the no bail request.

Grothe told Lake County News that, as the case is currently charged, if Beasley and McKay were to be convicted, they would face either life without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.

“The decision whether or not to seek the death penalty is normally made later in the case, after the preliminary hearing is conducted,” he said.

Grothe added, “I would expect that in this case the decision will be made by the incoming district attorney (Don Anderson) after he has had time to review the matter and meet with the prosecuting attorney, investigating officers and other relevant personnel.”

The case filing was the result of a nine-month investigation into the murders, according to Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.

Within days of the discovery of the bodies, detectives with the Lake County Sheriff’s Major Crime Unit learned that Beasley had apparently hired the Maddoxes to come to Lake County several months

prior to help him with a marijuana operation, Bauman said.

Bauman said the couple had been reported as missing about a month before the discovery of their bodies.

While still considered only a person of interest in the Maddox case at the time, Beasley was located near his home in Clearlake only two days after the bodies were found and arrested on an unrelated arrest warrant out of Maine, according to Bauman's report.

Investigators subsequently served search warrants on two homes Beasley was known to frequent, which Bauman said resulted in additional charges of marijuana cultivation.

According to a previous sheriff's office report, detectives learned that Beasley had reportedly convinced the Maddoxes to give him a ride to the Sacramento airport during the last week of January, which they agreed to do.

There also had been a report that Beasley had previously threatened one of them with a gun.

It was a week into the investigation when detectives identified McKay as another person of interest in the case, Bauman said. McKay was arrested for marijuana cultivation, possession for sales and weapons charges following a search warrant service on his home.

Bauman said McKay posted a $10,000 bond and was released the same day he was arrested.

With his marijuana case still pending in Lake County, detectives learned in October that McKay had apparently fled California and was believed to be in Atlanta, Bauman said.

Rob Brown, a local bail bondsman who also serves as a county supervisor, held McKay's bond. Brown surrendered the bond from March, traveled to Georgia to retrieve McKay and brought him back to Lake County.

Bauman said McKay has remained in the county jail since Oct. 19.

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