CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – The trial of a Clay County contractor accused of killing a client in 2019 is set to continue Friday morning.
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Corey Binderim, 49, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Susan Mauldin. The state is seeking the death penalty.
Mauldin was reported missing from her Fleming Island home in October 2019. Her remains were found three months later at a landfill in Folkston, Georgia.
Investigators said Binderim was the last person to see her alive.
In December 2019, Binderim, who was a person of interest in Mauldin’s disappearance, was arrested on an unrelated charge. He was charged a couple of months later with Mauldin’s murder.
Court records show Binderim was hired to complete a $12,000 remodel on Mauldin’s home before she disappeared. Documents released by prosecutors say he repeatedly failed to show up for work and finish the job.
On Thursday, prosecutors said on Oct. 23, a day before her disappearance, Mauldin gave an ultimatum to Binderim due to the unfinished work.
The trial’s first witness, who was Mauldin’s friend since 2001, testified that she knew Mauldin was angry about the lack of work being done in the bathroom.
In total, the jury heard from 13 witnesses on Thursday.
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According to court documents, Binderim bought concrete and heavy-duty construction bags on Oct. 24, 2019, a day before Mauldin was reported missing. On Thursday during opening statements, prosecutors accused Binderim of using that to dispose of Mauldin’s body.
He’s also accused of dumping 300 pounds of materials at a landfill the same day.
Binderim’s defense called this a “circumstantial case” and said that based on the 37 minutes captured on surveillance video, it was not enough time for Binderim to kill Mauldin and clean up afterward.
Moreover, Binderim’s lawyer said his DNA was not found on Mauldin’s two fingernails that were found at the landfill in Georgia. With that, the defense said there would be “reasonable doubt.”
Witnesses testifying on Thursday included investigators on the case and Mauldin’s friends.
The State Attorney’s Office showed photos of Mauldin’s guest bathroom that her friend testified had been incomplete for months. They said Mauldin went missing soon after she was planning to confront Binderim.
Mauldin’s friends also testified they didn’t know of anyone else Mauldin had an issue with.
Prosecutors said surveillance video showed Binderim buying demolition bags and concrete from Home Depot that he used to dispose of the victim’s body. Video evidence also placed him at Mauldin’s home that day and a few hours later, he checked it in a local landfill where he dumped hundreds of pounds of waste, as well as Mauldin’s body, according to the prosecution.
The state also said Mauldin was strangled and there was a struggle, with scratches seen on Binderim’s arm and hand.
“His façade of respectable contractor and family man was vanishing before his eyes, the money trouble, the drugs, the lies, collapsing his life around him,” prosecutor Ashley Terry said during opening statements. “So he took care of the problem. He prepared, got up that morning, he left his house, he went to Home Depot… at 7:04 am and he bought the burial shroud that he would lay Ms. Mauldin to rest in then he went to her house and he killed her. And then he tossed her out like the garbage he thought that she was.”
The defense claims Binderim was a hardworking contractor, and a father and noted that he goes to Home Depot and buys supplies often because of his line of work and that scratches like the ones on his hand and arm are occupational hazards. They also said he dumps waste at the landfill often for his job and that was nothing unusual.
They also claim the work at Mauldin’s home was taking so long because she was having trouble making design decisions.
The defense noted as well that Binderim’s DNA was not found on Mauldin’s two fingernails that were found at the landfill in Georgia but DNA was detected from an unknown man and an unknown woman.
“Medical examiner’s report says there’s a possible strangulation, and using your common sense, during a strangulation, a person defending themselves would scratch or try to have their arms be released from strangulation or their hands be released from strangulation and uses their fingernails in defense. Would there be DNA underneath those fingernails? And the results of that DNA testing is that Mr. Corey Binderim is excluded, excluded from that DNA mixture. That unknown male in the DNA mixture conclusively is not Corey Binderim,” said defense attorney Jim Hernandez.
The trial is expected to extend into next week.