AKRON, Ohio (Reuters) – A jury convicted 17-year-old Brogan Rafferty of murder on Tuesday in the deaths of three men, two of whom were lured to Ohio by a Craigslist ad promising work on a farm.
Rafferty and Richard Beasley, 53, were charged with murder in the deaths of the three men. Two men answered a social media ad for a $300-a-week job as a caretaker on a farm about 100 miles (160 km) south of Cleveland.
Although prosecutors said Beasley pulled the trigger, they accused Rafferty of assisting in the crimes and the attempted murder of a fourth man, Scott Davis.
Rafferty was 16 when he was arrested in November 2011, but was tried as an adult. He faces up to life in prison in the killing of David Pauley, 51, of Norfolk, Virginia; Ralph Geiger, 56, of Akron, Ohio; and Timothy Kern, 47, of Massillon, Ohio.
The Summit County, Ohio, jury of seven women and five men took 20 hours to reach a verdict.
During the trial, Rafferty testified that he feared for his life after watching Beasley, a man he considered a father figure and spiritual leader, shoot Geiger in the head execution style.
During his testimony, Rafferty admitted he dug two holes that he said were meant to be graves. He told jurors that he felt trapped into doing what Beasley said because he was “terrified” of the older man.
But prosecutors called Rafferty an apt pupil of Beasley’s and said the teen had ample opportunities to turn the older man in and protect himself and his family.
Beasley, a friend of the Rafferty family, is scheduled to stand trial in January. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
In other incidents involving Craigslist and other social media, people advertising goods for sale or responding to ads have been attacked and killed.
In 2009, a former medical student was accused of killing a masseuse he met through Craigslist. In February, two men in Tennessee were accused of killing a man and a woman for “unfriending” the daughter of one of the suspects on Facebook. (Editing by Greg McCune and James B. Kelleher; Editing by Sandra Maler and Stacey Joyce)
