A jury found two people guilty of first-degree murder Friday in the 2023 fatal shooting of a St. Clair woman.
Jurors convicted Melissa Fox-Beacom, 51, of New Florence, and Matthew Bates, 20, of Ligonier Township, of all the charges against them in connection with in the death of Alice Robson, Fox-Beacom’s mother.
Both Fox-Beacom and Bates face life in prison on the first-degree murder charge.
The verdict came after 90 minutes of deliberations.
Attorneys presented their closing arguments to the jury on Friday morning.
Assistant District Attorney Adam Barr argued that although a third suspect — Robert Jack, 20, formerly of Fairfield — is the one who pulled the trigger, Fox-Beacom and Bates are still responsible for Robson’s death.
“Robert Jack’s finger doesn’t go on that gun if you take these two out of the equation,” Barr told jurors in his closing arguments Friday morning.
The panel heard from 24 witnesses over four days of testimony this week.
Robson, 71, was fatally shot twice in the head Dec. 11, 2023, in the living room while she sat on the couch watching television. Her body was found three days later, stuffed in a crawlspace under a porch at her home. Authorities say Jack and Bates cleaned up the bloody scene and dragged Robson’s body through the house, outside and into the crawlspace.
Prosecutors say her death came at the request of Fox-Beacom, who despised her mother, and Bates. Both defendants were convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy, solicitation and abuse of a corpse.
Defense attorneys for Fox-Beacom and Bates argued that the shooter admitted to his actions on the witness stand.
“This was no conspiracy, this was no plot,” said attorney Tim Dawson, representing Fox-Beacom. “This was Robert Jack, who showed to you he’s nothing but a cold-blooded killer.”
Jack testified against both defendants Thursday, telling jurors that they asked him to kill Robson and claimed she abused Bates and his girlfriend, Fox-Beacom’s daughter. Several witnesses have told jurors they never saw Robson be abusive. She had custody of her disabled grandson, Fox-Beacom’s son, who required around-the-clock nursing care.
Robson had a protection-from-abuse order against her daughter.
Attorney Adam Gorzelsky argued that his client, Bates, repeatedly said he didn’t want the shooting to happen.
Gorzelsky said Jack implicated Bates to leverage a better outcome in his own case.
“It didn’t take much for that person to decide” to shoot Robson, he said.
Testimony indicated Bates provided Jack, who Gorzelsky called a psychopath, with the .22-caliber revolver Bates took from his father. Jack told jurors he had a tentative agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to third-degree homicide in exchange for a sentence of 40 to 80 years in prison.
A number of witnesses, including Jack, have testified 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.
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.
The gun was later found in Donegal Lake.