A Westmoreland County jury convicted Melissa Fox-Beacom and Matthew Bates of first-degree murder Friday in the 2023 shooting death of her mother.
Jurors decided that even though Fox-Beacom and Bates didn’t fire the bullets that killed Alice Robson on Dec. 11, 2023, their actions leading up to the shooting made them responsible for her death.
The conviction centered on evidence that the pair provided a .22-caliber revolver to 20-year-old Robert Jack and requested he use it to kill Robson. Jack, formerly of Fairfield, testified during the five-day trial that Fox-Beacom, 51, of New Florence, and Bates, 20, of Ligonier Township, recruited him for the task, leading to the execution of the 71-year-old woman as she sat on her living room couch.
“We’re happy for the jury’s verdict” and securing justice for Robson and her family, said Assistant District Attorney Adam Barr, who prosecuted the case with fellow attorney Steven Reddy.
Members of Robson’s family packed the courtroom throughout the trial, which started Monday, listening to sometimes gruesome testimony about the shooting and the evidence left behind. Jurors deliberated for 90 minutes.
Fox-Beacom, who often looked around at those who were present in court throughout the trial, showed no emotion when the verdict was read and left the courtroom stoic. Bates let out a deep breath as he was walked out in handcuffs.
Robson, 71, was fatally shot twice in the head Dec. 11, 2023, in the living room of her home as she watched television. Her body was found three days later, stuffed in a crawlspace under a porch.
Jack testified that he and Bates cleaned the bloody scene and dragged Robson’s body through the house, outside and into the crawlspace. Before being handed the gun, Jack told jurors both Fox-Beacom and Bates requested he kill Robson, claiming she abused Bates and Fox-Beacom’s daughter, whom Bates was dating.
In addition to murder, both defendants were convicted of conspiracy, solicitation and abuse of a corpse.
They face a mandatory sentence of life in prison on the murder charge when they’re sentenced later this year.
Robson’s sister-in-law, Sharon Robson, said she thought the verdict was fair.
“Alice did not deserve this, we’ve said that all along,” she said.
The jury panel heard from 24 witnesses over four days of testimony.
One of them was Jack, who testified for the prosecution. He and other witnesses said Fox-Beacom regularly discussed animosity toward her mother and expressed a desire for her to be dead.
They testified she wanted to regain custody of her disabled son, collect his disability checks and move into Robson’s Furnace Lane home. She often referred to her mother as “fat cow,” according to testimony.
Robson had custody of her disabled grandson, Fox-Beacom’s son, and a protection-from-abuse order against her daughter. She was never seen being abusive, witnesses said.
Defense attorneys Tim Dawson, representing Fox-Beacom, and Adam Gorzelsky, representing Bates, said after the verdict that there are several issues they intend to appeal.
Earlier in the day, attorneys made their closing arguments to jurors. The defense didn’t present any witnesses.
Dawson and Gorzelsky pointed to Jack, who admitted to killing Robson while on the witness stand.
“This was no conspiracy, this was no plot,” Dawson said. “This was Robert Jack, who showed to you he’s nothing but a cold-blooded killer.”
Gorzelsky argued that Bates repeatedly said he didn’t want the shooting to happen and Jack, who Gorzelsky called a psychopath, implicated him to leverage a better outcome in his own case.
“It didn’t take much for that person to decide” to shoot Robson, Gorzelsky said.
Barr argued that Fox-Beacom and Bates made choices that, while they didn’t pull the trigger, led to Robson’s death. Fox-Beacom made statements for years that she wanted her mother dead and Bates provided the gun, and showed Jack how to use it, Barr said.
“He knew exactly what was going to happen when he handed Robert Jack that gun — Alice would be dead in moments,” he argued.
Without them, the murder would not have happened that day.
“Robert Jack’s finger doesn’t go on that gun if you take these two out of the equation,” Barr said.
Jack told jurors he had a tentative agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to third-degree homicide in exchange for a sentence to 40 to 80 years in prison. His case is pending.
