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Craigslist guilty verdict: Richard Beasley was found guilty of murder by a jury in Akron, Ohio, on Tuesday. Beasley, 53, and a 16-year-old accomplice allegedly lured people through Craigslist job ads to rob them, killing two and shooting another who survived to testify.
Carol Beasley, the mother of convicted murderer Richard Beasley, says she still believes her son is innocent after his conviction on March 12, 2013 in a video posted online by the Akron Beacon Journal.
Richard Beasley was convicted of murder on Tuesday in the Craigslist ploy that left two dead and one injured, but alive to tell the tale. The jury will reconvene on March 20 to consider recommending the death penalty.
His accomplice, Brogan Rafferty, was 16-years-old at the time of the murders in 2011; Rafferty was sentenced last year to life in prison.
The two posted advertisements on Craigslist.com for farmhand jobs.
Three of the respondents were killed: Ralph Geiger, 56, of Akron; David Pauley, 51, of Norfolk, Va.; and Timothy Kern, 47, of Massillon, Ohio. Scott Davis, was shot, but ran and hid in the woods, he testified, according to the Associated Press (AP).
Beasley maintains he was innocent, and his mother believes him.
“I know a lot of the things that I read in the paper that were testified to were not true,” Carol Beasley said in a video posted by the Akron Beacon Journal. “Witnesses did not always tell the truth.”
“I really thought he’d be found innocent,” she said. “He’s always said he didn’t do it.”
She said she sympathizes with the suffering of the victims’ families.
“Now, I think I feel what they have gone through. You just try to do the best you can.”
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