AKRON, OHIO (AP) -- A self-styled street preacher accused in a deadly plot to lure men with Craigslist job offers in Ohio and then rob them has been found guilty of aggravated murder and could face the death penalty.
A jury in Akron returned the verdict Tuesday in the case against Richard Beasley.
Two men from Ohio and one from Norfolk, Va., were slain. A man from South Carolina was shot but survived.
Prosecutors labeled the 53-year-old Beasley the triggerman in the 2011 plot with a high school student, who was convicted and sentenced last year to life in prison without the chance of parole. The teenage co-defendant had said he feared for his safety if he didn't cooperate with Beasley.
Beasley's lawyers had said investigators targeted him based only on a hunch. They said the identity theft and robbery motives prosecutors offered were baseless.
By THOMAS J. SHEERAN
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