CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – There was explosive evidence presented in court on Monday in the trial of a Clay County contractor accused of killing a client in 2019.
A Clay County inmate testified that Corey Binderim confessed to him that he strangled Mauldin in a dispute over money and took her body to a dump.
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The jury also saw images from the nine-day search for Susan Mauldin in a south Georgia landfill, as well as disturbing images of the remains they found.
Binderim, 49, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of 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.
Binderim’s ex-wife testified, telling the court he had had a problem with cocaine in the past, which had led to money problems.
Meanwhile, the defense continued to note that no blood evidence connecting Binderim to the crime has been recovered.
The jailhouse informant, Thomas Smith, said he and Binderim bonded over doing similar work in construction and Binderim told him he went to Mauldin’s house when he was high to collect payment and they got into an argument that escalated.
“He said that she started getting loud and that he was trying to shut her up,” Smith said.
On Friday, the state played surveillance video for the jury showing Binderim’s movements around the time Mauldin went missing.
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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.
Binderim was seen in a surveillance video at Home Depot around 7 a.m. the day after friends said Mauldin was planning to confront him. He was seen buying demolition bags and concrete mix. The prosecution said a bag he bought became her shroud.
Surveillance video showed Binderim’s truck in Mauldin’s driveway a little after 8 a.m. and then around 9 a.m., he checked in at a local landfill where prosecutors say he left Mauldin’s body. He’s accused of dumping 300 pounds of materials at the landfill.
Surveillance video showed Binderim back at Home Depot around 11 a.m. that morning wearing different clothes.
The lead detective in the case also testified that a few weeks after Mauldin went missing, Binderim was the target of an investigation in Jacksonville Beach where he was accused of stealing a $5,000 check from another client.
The detective also testified that Binderim fled to Colorado using a burner phone and eventually turned himself in in December.
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.
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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 but DNA was detected from an unknown man and an unknown woman. With that, the defense said there would be “reasonable doubt.”
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.
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.
“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 state is expected to finish presenting evidence on Tuesday.
The court is closed the rest of the week due to Hurricane Milton and closing statements are expected to be presented next Monday.