Suspect in Ohio Craigslist case pleads not guilty

Sum­mit County Pros­e­cut­ing Attor­ney Sherri Bevan Walsh announces a 28-count indict­ment against 52-year-old Richard James Beasley of Akron dur­ing a news con­fer­ence at the Oliver Ocasek Audi­to­rium on Fri­day in Akron, Ohio. Exhibits at the left show the vic­tims and explains the indict­ments. Beasley is accused of a scheme to rob peo­ple who replied to a job ad on Craigslist has been charged with aggra­vated mur­der, kid­nap­ping and rob­bery in the killing of three men and could face the death penalty if con­victed. (Asso­ci­ated Press | Paul Tople)

THOMAS J. SHEERAN

Asso­ci­ated Press

AKRON — A self-styled chap­lain sus­pected in a deadly Craigslist rob­bery scheme pleaded not guilty Wednes­day to charges includ­ing aggra­vated mur­der and kidnapping.

An attor­ney for Richard Beasley, 52, entered the plea on his behalf as his client hid his face in his arms dur­ing his arraign­ment by video hookup from jail.

Beasley, only his head, shoul­ders and arms show­ing on the screen, asked about news cam­eras in the court­room. “I’m wor­ried about con­t­a­m­i­nat­ing a jury pool,” Beasley said with­out look­ing up.

Mag­is­trate John Shoe­maker asked Beasley to briefly show his face to con­firm his iden­tity but then agreed to let the defense attor­ney and pros­e­cu­tor con­firm who it was.

Beasley refused to skip the read­ing of the indict­ment, a rou­tine move that speeds up the case. Two pros­e­cu­tors spent more than 55 min­utes tak­ing turns read­ing the indict­ment and its numer­ous death penalty specifications.

Beasley has been held with­out bond and Shoe­maker con­tin­ued that arrange­ment. Beasley’s count-appointed attor­ney, Brian Pierce, said he might take up the issue of pre­trial release on bond with trial Judge Lynne Callahan.

A pre­trial hear­ing was sched­uled for Feb. 8.

Beasley is accused of killing three men and wound­ing a fourth and could face the death penalty if convicted.

A 17-year-old co-defendant, Bro­gan Raf­ferty, has pleaded not guilty to juve­nile counts brought against him Fri­day. Raf­ferty was a stu­dent at Stow-Munroe Falls High School in sub­ur­ban Akron when he was arrested in the fall.

Raf­ferty was charged with three counts of aggra­vated mur­der, one count of attempted mur­der, four counts of aggra­vated rob­bery and four counts of kid­nap­ping, Sum­mit County prosecutor’s spokes­woman April Wies­ner said.

Two men were shot and killed and a third was shot but sur­vived and escaped after hid­ing in woods in Noble County, author­i­ties said. Those shoot­ings hap­pened between Aug. 9 and Nov. 6. A fourth man was killed Nov. 13, and his body was found in Akron.

The vic­tims had answered Craigslist ads for work on a nonex­is­tent cat­tle farm in rural Noble County in south­east Ohio. The scheme tar­geted older, sin­gle, out-of-work men with back­grounds that made it unlikely their dis­ap­pear­ances would be noted right away.

In a four-page hand­writ­ten let­ter to the Akron Bea­con Jour­nal, Beasley has said he has been mis­cast as a con man when he really helped feed, house and coun­sel scores of needy fam­i­lies, alco­holics, drug addicts, the men­tally ill and crime sus­pects for years.

Posted by AP News on Jan 25 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.