AKRON, Ohio (AP) — A self-styled street preacher wassentenced to death Thursday in the killings of
three down-and-out menlured by bogus job offers posted on Craigslist.The jury thatconvicted Richard Beasley
of murder recommended that he face execution.The judge had the option of reducing the sentence to life in
prison.Beasley,53, was convicted of teaming up with a teenager in 2011 to use thepromise of jobs on a
southeast Ohio farm to lure them into robberies.Three men were killed, and a fourth who was wounded
testified atBeasley’s trial.The judge read the three death sentences in a hushed courtroom crowded with
victims’ relatives, some of them holding back tears.Beasleyskipped the chance to speak to the judge before
the sentencing. Heasked to speak later, but the judge said that was his chance, and hepassed on it. He
listened to the verdict with his head on his chest,sitting in a wheelchair he uses for back
pain.Beasley’sco-defendant, who was 16 at the time of the crimes, was too young toface the death penalty.
Brogan Rafferty was sentenced to life in prisonwithout the chance of parole on his conviction last year.One
victim was killed near Akron, and the others were shot at a southeast Ohio farm during bogus job
interviews.Theslain men were Ralph Geiger, 56, of Akron; David Pauley, 51, ofNorfolk, Va.; and Timothy Kern,
47, of Massillon. All were looking for afresh start in life, prosecutors said repeatedly during the
trial.Thesurvivor, Scott Davis, now 49, testified that he heard the click of agun as he walked in front of
Beasley at the reputed job site. Davis, whowas shot in an arm, knocked the weapon aside, fled into the woods
andtipped police.Beasley, who returned to Ohio from Texas in 2004after serving several years in prison on a
burglary conviction, claimedat trial that Davis had in fact pulled a gun on him in retaliation forBeasley
serving as a police informant in a motorcycle ganginvestigation.In arguing the sentence before the jury,
both sideshighlighted Rafferty’s case: The defense said his life sentence shouldfactor into the jury’s
deliberations but prosecutors said it shouldn’tbecause Rafferty’s age ruled out the death penalty
entirely.Thejury recommended execution after hearing two hours of testimony fromwitnesses, including
Beasley’s tearful mother, who were called toportray him sympathetically and press for leniency.Carol
Beasleytestified that her son had a troubled childhood and suffered physicalabuse by his stepfather. She
also said she learned within the past yearthat her son had been sexually abused by neighborhood
youngsters."I always felt there was much more than he told me," she said.As she testified, Beasley
slumped forward, his chin on his chest and his right hand covering his eyes.Thedefense also called a
psychologist, John Fabian, who testified thatBeasley suffers from depression, alcohol abuse, low self-esteem
and afeeling of isolation, all possible results of a troubled, abusivechildhood.Prosecutor Jonathan Baumoel
had urged jurors toconsider the "enormous" weight of Beasley’s crimes as they consideredhis
punishment, calling him "the worst of the worst."Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.