Teen gets life in prison for Craigslist killings:
Previously when I’ve posted about Brogan Rafferty and his role in the Ohio craigslist killings I said that I doubt that he would receive a life sentence. I felt that he was more coerced into the crimes he committed by the ringleader of the plot, Richard Beasley. Boy, I couldn’t have been any more wrong. Last week Rafferty was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
It seems both the judge and jury felt that Rafferty was more of a willing accomplice than a terrified teen…
Judge Lynne S. Callahan made it clear that she didn’t accept Brogan Rafferty’s claims of being a frightened kid unsure of where to turn for help as he helped Richard Beasley kill three men.
Beasley’s actions were evil. “You embraced the evil. You studied it. You continued it,” Callahan told Rafferty during his sentencing hearing Friday in Summit County Common Pleas Court.
Rafferty dug the graves of the victims, served as Beasley’s wheelman, and had even shared meals with the victims knowing full well what Beasley had planned for them. At any time Rafferty could have gone to police or warned Beasley’s victims. Fear is a great motivator but at what point do you see someone else being killed that you finally do something. We’ll never know at what point that would have been for Rafferty because their fourth victim survived. So maybe it was somewhat naive of me to think that Rafferty wasn’t fully complicit in this scheme.
Beasley is looking at a possible death sentence when he goes to trial in January.
Real Crime with Trench Reynolds 