AKRON, Ohio — Federal authorities are accusing Craigslist shooting suspect Richard Beasley of kidnapping and wire fraud as their investigation into three slayings grows.
The new charges, announced Thursday, prompted a Summit County Common Pleas judge to order the Akron man to remain jailed without bond.
Beasley, 52, was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair by sheriff’s deputies for a pretrial hearing on an unrelated drug trafficking case. Dressed in black and white striped jail garb and loafers, Beasley kept his head bowed and his hands folded on his lap. He said nothing during the brief appearance.
He is the prime suspect in the shooting deaths of three men and the gunshot assault of another man. Each of the victims is believed to have answered a bogus Craigslist employment ad in October or November. Beasley is accused of placing the ad in an effort to kill unsuspecting job seekers.
His attorney, Rhonda Kotnik, said Beasley continues to deny any involvement in the spate of slayings stretching from Akron to Noble County in rural southeastern Ohio.
In a handwritten letter to the Akron Beacon Journal, Beasley also took issue with his portrayal by friends as a Christian “con man” who used his position as a chaplain and halfway house operator as a front for prostitution and drug dealing: “ … to call me a con man when I sacrificed for others is wrong,” Beasley wrote. “To turn their back on me is not following Christ’s example. I gave three full years of my life to that ministry and what I got out of it was the satisfaction of doing the right thing.
“There was no ‘con’ to it.”
Kotnik said Beasley told his mother during a telephone call this week that he believes he suffered stroke-like symptoms. The gray-haired, 300-pound Beasley normally walks with a cane because of a back injury, but he told deputies he was unsteady on his feet before his court appearance.
A contingent of deputies and reporters encircled the courtroom as Beasley was taken in by wheelchair for his first public appearance since his Nov. 16 arrest, which came just days after the first body was recovered in a grave near Caldwell, Ohio.
Beasley’s head bobbed up and down slowly as attorneys talked with Judge Tammy O’Brien. In addition to the drug trafficking case, Beasley is facing a multicount indictment on prostitution charges. Akron police vice detectives contend his halfway house was a ruse to allow prostitution.
Assistant prosecutor Jay Cole said Beasley is a suspect in a “very violent crime” and he asked the judge to revoke the defendant’s $1 million bond. He also said there was a detainer on Beasley from Ohio and Texas, but he did not mention any connection to the Craigslist shootings.
Jail records show an FBI detainer has been placed on Beasley since he first entered the jail on Nov. 16. Kotnik said the federal charges allege kidnapping and wire fraud stemming from the Craigslist shootings.
An FBI spokeswoman and a spokesman for U.S. attorneys in Cleveland declined comment Thursday.
Court papers filed in Noble County identify Beasley as a suspect in the shooting death of a Virginia man and the wounding of a former Canton, Ohio, man.
In addition, the body of a Massillon, Ohio, man was found last week in Akron. The same day, a third body was recovered in Noble County.
All four victims are believed to have answered the Craigslist help wanted ad, which offered a $300-a-week salary and use of a two-bedroom trailer to oversee a large farm in Noble County.
Prosecutors contend Brogan Rafferty, 16, was Beasley’s accomplice in the Craigslist shootings. The Stow-Munroe Falls High School junior is being held on aggravated murder and attempted murder charges. He is due in Noble County Common Pleas Court on Dec. 15. He is expected to be tried as an adult.
Rafferty’s parents have said he was mentored by Beasley, a family friend, and was manipulated by the self-proclaimed reformed convict. The teen is believed to be cooperating with detectives in their investigation of Beasley, who has not been indicted in any of the Craigslist shootings.
Beasley has told his attorney he is innocent in the Craigslist case and feels betrayed by Rafferty’s apparent cooperation with detectives.
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“His emotional state is very distraught,” Kotnik said. “He’s very concerned.”
In his letter to the Beacon Journal, he does not mention Rafferty or the Craigslist case. Instead, the four-page letter recounts his ministry work with Akron Bible Church and his halfway house, which he purchased with his own money. He provided housing and food to more than 100 people who came and went from the shelter, he said.
He also helped feed “40 to 60” families a month out of the house and his car and provided weekly Bible studies for those seeking God. Counseling and guidance for those in need came at all hours of the day, he said.
“Who paid for this? I did,” he wrote. “I had a financial settlement (from a traffic crash that injured his back) and spent most all of it to help others and got almost no financial help from anyone.”
Beasley also wrote that he spent three years on the church staff helping people, mostly drug addicts, alcoholics, the mentally challenged and the homeless who were charged with a crime and facing the possibility of prison.
He said he appeared in court on behalf of defendants three to four times a month for three years. After just one year of work, he was ordained by the church pastor, the Rev. Randy Baker, as a chaplain.
“I was very well known for these things, but never looked for credit on this Earth,” Beasley wrote. “A number of people from doctors and judges and lawyers and preachers and the homeless can stand witness to these facts.”
While helping drug addicts, he made drug dealers unhappy, he said. While helping domestic violence victims, he angered spouses. At times, he had to “sanction” people who violated rules at his transitional home, he said.
“The point is, I have enemies, but for the right reasons,” he wrote. “So when you quote someone as a family friend who says something horrible about me, you better believe that’s not a family friend.”
Eventually, Beasley and Akron Bible Church went separate ways. In interviews with the Beacon Journal after Beasley’s arrest in early November, Baker and associate pastor the Rev. Fred Lester said they grew uncomfortable with Beasley’s charity work, particularly his housing of female residents at the halfway house. They called Beasley a “con man.”
Beasley defended himself in the letter to the Beacon Journal.
“I lived in an old, inner-city house, drove old cars, got up in the middle of the night uncountable times to answer calls for help,” he wrote. “I gave away almost all I had and got almost nothing in return. That is not the actions of a con man.”