A jury has recommended the death penalty for a man found guilty of luring men to their deaths with bogus jobs ads on the Craigslist website.
A judge will decide the fate of killer Richard Beasley, 53, on Tuesday.
He was convicted of murdering three men in Ohio. His teenage accomplice, Brogan Rafferty, was sentenced to life in prison without parole last November.
A man who survived being shot gave harrowing testimony in both trials of fleeing for his life.
As well as aggravated murder – “aggravated” in this case because the murder was planned in advance – Beasley was convicted of aggravated robbery, kidnapping and attempted murder.
‘Gun cocked’
In the courtroom on Wednesday, victims’ relatives hugged one another after the penalty recommendation was read aloud.
Beasley, who did not take the stand to plead for mercy, hung his head, local media reported.
During the trial prosecutors said the three murder victims, each single and unemployed with few family ties, had been lured with offers of farmhand jobs.
All three – Ralph Geiger, 56, David Pauley, 51 and Timothy Kern, 47 – were shot dead.
Beasley had intended to rob his victims and steal their identities, prosecutors said.
Survivor Scott Davis, 49, testified during the trial he heard a gun being cocked as he walked in front of Beasley after arriving for the supposed job interview.
He pushed the weapon aside and was shot in the arm, he said.
“I was worried about bleeding to death,” Mr Davis said.
Mr Davis told how he ran into the woods and hid for seven hours.
Beasley argued he had shot Mr Davis in self defence, and that unknown killers – members of a motorcycle gang, perhaps – had slain the other victims.
