Death sentence affirmed for Craigslist killer
Ohio high court upholds penalty for Akron man.
The Ohio Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence for Richard Beasley, the Akron man convicted of using Craigslist ads to rob and murder three men.
“Over a period of three months, he methodically lured multiple victims through ads promising jobs, interviewing multiple candidates to eliminate those most likely to fight back or be missed,” Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor wrote in the opinion released Friday. “He killed Ralph Geiger to steal his identity, killed David Pauley and Tim Kern to steal their meager possessions, and tried to kill Scott Davis. And when he was arrested in November 2011, he had already posted a new ad to lure more victims.”
Beasley’s attorneys, who argued he should get a new trial because of errors made in his original trial, were disappointed in the court’s decision.
“We will look at the options to send it to the U.S. Supreme Court,” said Donald Gallick, who represented Beasley in his state appeal, along with Akron attorney Don Hicks.
Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh, however, was pleased with the court’s ruling.
“Beasley is an evil man who murdered three innocent people and nearly killed a fourth,” she said in an emailed statement. “We continue to fight for the victims; Ralph Geiger, David Pauley, Tim Kern, and Scott Davis. Beasley must be held accountable for his actions.”
Beasley, 58, and his teenage accomplice, Brogan Rafferty of Stow, were convicted in 2013 of murdering three men and trying to kill another. The murders made national news because Beasley posted ads on Craigslist to lure the men to a remote spot in southern Ohio.
Beasley and Rafferty were captured after a gun malfunctioned and one of the men escaped and hid in the woods after being shot in the elbow.
Beasley was sentenced to death, while Rafferty was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.
Gallick and Hicks argued Beasley didn’t get a fair trial based on errors, including a prosecutor using an inappropriate biblical reference during the opening statement, a juror being permitted to remain on the trial even though he knew an FBI agent who testified in the case, and Beasley’s prior criminal record being mentioned. The Supreme Court rejected these arguments. The court also found the evidence in the trial proved Beasley committed the murders and that the mitigating evidence presented about Beasley’s life didn’t outweigh the nature of the crimes.
“Without question, the aggravating circumstances in this case, Beasley’s murder of three individuals as part of a single course of conduct, outweigh the mitigating factors,” said O’Connor, a Summit County native.
The Supreme Court remanded the case to Summit County Common Pleas Court to resentence Beasley for his non-capital convictions, stating the trial judge did not take the proper steps to impose consecutive prison sentences for crimes Beasley committed. This is basically a procedural issue because it has no bearing on Beasley’s death sentence.
Two justices dissented in part with the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision. Justice R. Patrick DeWine disagreed with the need for resentencing on the non-capital crimes. Justice William O’Neill, who resigned from the court Jan. 26, affirmed Beasley’s convictions but dissented about imposing a death sentence. O’Neill thinks capital punishment violates the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.