A deadly Craigslist scheme in Ohio lured unsuspecting men to a farm in search for work where they were robbed and killed. A 17-year old teenager was found guilty Tuesday and faces life in prison for his role in the murders.
Brogan Rafferty was charged with murder and given no chance of parole by the jury after four days of deliberation. Rafferty's accomplice Richard Beasley, 53, was also charged with murder and is scheduled to stand trial in January. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Rafferty was 16 when he was arrested in November 2011, but was tried as an adult. The deadly Craigslist scheme began after they posted an ad on Craigslist for a $300-a-week job as a caretaker on a farm about 100 miles south of Cleveland.
David Pauley, 51, of Norfolk, Virginia; Ralph Geiger, 56, of Akron, Ohio; and Timothy Kern, 47, of Massillon, Ohio responded to the deadly Craigslist ad and was killed by the two Ohio-based men.
There was a fourth victim, 49-year-old Scott Davis of South Carolina, who survived the attacks and went on to testify as the prosecution's star witness. He identified Rafferty as Beasley's accomplice and shared the ordeal he suffered at their hands.
According to the Associated Press, prosecutors said Beasley pulled the trigger, but they accused Rafferty of assisting in the crimes and the attempted murder of a fourth man, Scott Davis.
This is not the first deadly Craigslist scheme that has resulted in a death. In 2009, a former medical student was accused of killing a masseuse he met through Craigslist. Earlier in February this year, two men in Tennessee were accused of killing a man and a woman for "unfriending" the daughter of one of the suspects on Facebook.
