14 DAY TRIAL // The jury is deliberating after the trial of alleged Craigslist killer Richard Beasley, reports say. Beasley has been charged with murdering three people in 2011, after posting an ad on Craiglist to lure them.
53-year-old Beasley advertised a job at a farm in southern Ohio through the website. Three people that responded to the ad, 56-year-old Ralph Geiger, 47-year-old Timothy Kern and 51-year-old David Pauley ended up dead.
According to Fox 8, Beasley is charged on 26 counts, including nine aggravated murder charges and other counts of kidnapping and gun-related crimes. If he is convicted, he could be awarded the death penalty.
Closing arguments in the case have been presented on Monday, March 11, in front of a jury selected out of a pool of 200.
The prosecution presented the testimony of Scott Davis, who escaped being shot and pointed at Beasley as his attacker.
“Because Scott Davis got away, this insanity, these horrifying events came to an end. It should be celebrated.
“Richard Beasley was not going to stop; he was not going to stop; the killing was not going to stop,” Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Jon Baumoel says.
The defense claimed that Davis was the assailant and Beasley shot him in self-defense. Defense Attorney James Burdon responds to the prosecution's strategy of presenting the killings as motivated by robberies.
“Why would you kill Ralph Geiger? The whole idea of this Craigslist ad was to lure people with property to southern Ohio; that’s their theory: to steal their property. What did Ralph Geiger have?
“There’s no debate here; Ralph Geiger on August 8 was living at the Haven of Rest. He was ‘down on his luck.’ There was nothing to steal,” Burdon argues.
Burdon also brings into question the lack of witnesses to the victims' deaths, and stresses that there is no physical evidence proving that his client is the killer.