By The Associated Press

Published: Thursday, October 25, 2012, 9:04 p.m.
Updated: Thursday, October 25, 2012

AKRON, Ohio — The case of a teenager accused of participating in the slayings of three men lured by phony Craigslist job offers went to a jury on Thursday, with prosecutors portraying him as a full accomplice in the crimes and his defense attorney arguing he was a scared child stuck in a horrible situation.

Defendant Brogan Rafferty faces life in prison without chance of parole if convicted of aggravated murder in the shooting deaths of the men last year. Two were killed in rural eastern Ohio and one was killed near Akron.

Rafferty, 17, has said his onetime mentor, Richard Beasley, had issued a veiled warning to keep quiet.

Beasley, who has pleaded not guilty and will be tried separately, could face the death penalty if convicted. As a juvenile, Rafferty can't be sentenced to death.

Jurors deliberated about two hours before leaving for the day. They were expected to resume first thing Friday.

In closing arguments Thursday, prosecutors portrayed Rafferty as someone who knew exactly what he was doing and ignored opportunities to go to police.

“Although Richard Beasley is a murderer and liar, he was brutally honest with one person. One person knew everything that he was doing. Just one. And that was Brogan Rafferty,” assistant Summit County prosecutor John Baumoel told jurors. “Brogan Rafferty knew each and every one of his dark secrets.”

Baumoel told jurors that the two were partners “in executing people out in the woods.”

He pointed jurors to Internet searches Rafferty did after the first slaying for the term “first kill” and “Sopranos' first whack,” referring to the TV show about a New Jersey mafia family. And he downplayed arguments the defense had made that Rafferty was the product of a tough childhood.

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