Linden Beaton is accused of raping, kidnapping and murdering Johynita Jordan, 69, in January 2019.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Prosecutors closed their direct case at Linden Beaton’s murder trial on Thursday by again showing jurors what they apparently believe is their most compelling piece of evidence.

For the second time, the panel viewed a compilation of surveillance video depicting the movements of Beaton and the victim, Johynita Jordan, 69, at various times during the early morning hours of Jan. 19, 2019, when, prosecutors allege, the defendant raped, kidnapped and strangled the victim to death.

The 35-minute video montage is comprised of security video shot from homes, police cameras and other security systems in Clifton and Stapleton.

The montage is laid out in chronological order, although there are gaps in the time sequence.

The gaps are due to those instances when Beaton and Jordan’s movements were not captured by a surveillance camera, Detective Michele Mazza testified.

Prosecutors’ primary focus was on the one-hour period between about 4:20 a.m. and 5:16 a.m.

Dark and grainy in spots, jurors viewed the montage in regular format and zoomed-in mode.

Assistant District Attorneys Lisa Davis and Victoria Levin allege the video depicts Beaton, now 35, following Jordan after she left her Clifton home at about 4:20 a.m.

Within minutes, Beaton attacked and sexually assaulted the victim in Sobel Court Park, a small wooded area near the intersection of Vanderbilt Avenue and Targee Street, prosecutors allege. Those alleged actions are not on video, which constitutes about a 33-minute gap.

Articles of the victim’s clothing, including her bra, panties, boots and jacket, were discovered in the park on Jan. 25.

After Beaton and Jordan left the park, the video, prosecutors contend, shows the defendant beating the victim at various points and “dragging” her shoeless more than a half-mile through local streets to an abandoned “flop house” on Van Duzer Street in Stapleton.

At times he had her in a “headlock,” said prosecutors.

The video further depicts Beaton knocking the victim to the ground several times outside the abandoned home, then dragging her around the back and inside at about 5:16 a.m., allege prosecutors.

Beaton killed Jordan inside the residence, prosecutors allege.

There is no video inside the house.

Jordan’s body was not found until Jan. 27 inside the abandoned home. That was eight days after she was reported missing.

The medical examiner determined the cause of death was compression of the neck.

The defense, however, contends Jordan died of a methadone overdose. A fatal amount of methadone was found in samples of her blood and tissue, alleges the defense.

Jordan had been on a methadone maintenance program for years, witnesses have testified.

Linden Beaton, center, stands with his lawyers, Sam Roberts, left, and Gillian Kress at his trial in state Supreme Court, St. George. (Steve White for the Staten Island Advance)

In his opening argument three weeks ago, Sam Roberts, one of Beaton’s lawyers, said Jordan and Beaton had consensual sex, but he never harmed her, nor did he drag her along the street.

He said Beaton, as they walked along, was actually holding up and helping Jordan, who was suffering from the effects of an “excessive intake” of methadone.

Last week, Roberts played a brief video clip of Beaton and Jordan walking along Van Duzer Street. His arm was around her neck and shoulders and her arm was around his waist.

Mazza was the only witness to testify on Thursday.

She was called back to the stand after previously testifying two weeks ago.

In her prior testimony, Mazza said she became involved in the case when it was a missing persons investigation.

Jordan was reported missing late in the evening of Jan. 19.

Mazza said she had primarily scoured for surveillance video in and around the victim’s neighborhood, searching for clues as to her possible whereabouts.

The detective said the various videos which she and other investigators obtained were sent to a forensic video analyst hired by prosecutors to create the montage.

Mazza, meanwhile, made still photos from the video, depicting Beaton’s movements in and around the Park Hill area of Clifton and in Stapleton starting from 7:47 p.m. on Jan. 18, 2019.

Over the next eight-and-a-half hours, Beaton is seen at various times entering and exiting different apartment buildings on Park Hill Avenue where he and some other men apparently visited people.

At one point, around 2:11 a.m. on Jan. 19 they drove off in a livery vehicle and returned about a half-hour later.

Later, at about 4:20 a.m. Beaton walked to his apartment building, entered it through the back, then quickly exited it via the front door.

Within minutes, he is seen walking behind Jordan on the street.

The photos and video then provide an overview of Jordan and Beaton’s movements to the abandoned home.

The final footage and photos show Beaton returning to his apartment building at 12:35 p.m.

He had exited the abandoned Stapleton home about 10 minutes earlier and essentially reversed the route he had taken earlier that morning with Jordan, said Mazza.

Jordan was never seen leaving the abandoned home, witnesses have testified.

In an effort to show the defendant and victim weren’t moving around in a vacuum, Gillian Kress, another lawyer for Beaton, asked Mazza if there were bus stops along the route Beaton and Jordan took to the abandoned Stapleton residence.

The detective said there were multiple bus stops. However, she couldn’t state a number or say if anyone was waiting for a bus at one of them when Beaton and Jordan were in that area.

Mazza confirmed that one video clip showed a bus passing by Beaton and Jordan as they walked along a section of Van Duzer Street.

The trial resumes Tuesday in state Supreme Court, St. George, before Justice Mario F. Mattei.

The defense is expected to begin presenting its case then.

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