Richard James Beasley, accused Ohio Craiglist Killer indicted

The original "Craigslist Killer," Philip Markoff, is long dead, having committed suicide in August of 2010, but that infamous name has been applied to Richard James Beasley, as well, and on Friday he was charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder and kidnapping for the slaying of three men who answered a phony job ad on the free classifieds site Craigslist.

Prosecutors in the case plan to seek the death penalty. Beasley is 52. Brogan Rafferty, who was then 16, is suspected of being Beasley's accomplice in the crimes. Rafferty will be tried as an adult, and was charged in Noble County with murder and attempted murder.

Summit County prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh announced the 28-count indictment on Friday, which also includes charges of attempted murder and identity theft. Authorities continue to investigate the possibility that there could be additional victims of the deadly Craigslist plot.

Beasley and Rafferty are suspected of luring four men to Noble County, Ohio with the promise of a ranch-hand job on a 688-acre property. The job was supposed to pay $300 a week; the men were instructed to bring all of their belongings with them when they came to answer to advertisement.

The three bodies were found in November of last year. Timothy Kern, 47, of Massillon, Ohio was found in a shallow grave behind a semi-deserted mall in Akron, Ohio. Meanwhile, two other men, Ralph Geiger, 56, of Akron, Ohio and David Pauley, 51, of Norfolk, Virginia were found buried in Noble County.

Beasley aas previously sentenced to 40 years for aggravated burglary in Texas in 1989. However, he was later released and give 34 years of probation.

While indicted on the murder charges, Beasley is actually currently being held on differing charges, for prostitution and drug charges, with a $1 million bond. Rhonda Lee Kotnik, his attorney in that case, said Beasley had yet not been told of the murder indictment. "He's just been sitting in jail waiting and I haven't been able to tell him what's going on because I don't know either."

A fourth potential victim Scott Davis, 48, of South Carolina, survived an attempt on his life on November 6 of 2011. Prosecutors said that, after meeting Beasley and Rafferty, Davis drove with the pair to a heavily wooded area and, once he exited the car, hear the click of a gun. Davis ran, and survived with a gunshot wound to the arm. Davis then hid in the woods, for hours, and finally walked two miles to a home where he called the police.

No date has been set for the next hearing in the case. Beasley has not been assigned a defense attorney on the murder charges yet.

While Markoff is perhaps the best known Craigslist Killer, in late September of 2011, Clabon Berniard, 24 joined accomplices Kiyoshi Higashi, Joshua Reese, and Amanda Knight as serving life sentences for the brutal slaying of James Sanders on April 28, 2010 in Edgewood, Washington near Tacoma, in what as also dubbed a Craigslist Killing. In that case, an ad for a diamond ring for sale on craigslist.com lured the quartet into the Sanders home, and Sanders was eventually shot and killed.

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