(AP) — The Akron jury that convicted 53-year-old Richard Beasley made its recommendation Wednesday after hearing from witnesses on his behalf. Beasley's mother and a psychologist portrayed him as a man suffering from depression and other problems after a troubled, abusive childhood.
The self-styled street preacher was convicted of teaming up with a teenager in 2011 to lure men with offers of farmhand jobs in southeast Ohio and to rob them. Three men were killed, and a fourth was wounded.
Beasley's co-defendant, then 16, was too young to face the death penalty. Brogan Rafferty was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole on his conviction last year.
