Sentencing is scheduled for May 1st for 51-year-old Melissa Fox-Beacom and 20-year-old Matthew Bates, who were both found guilty on Friday of first degree murder along with felony conspiracy and solicitation to murder, and misdemeanor abuse of a corpse in the shooting death of 71-year-old Alice Robson at her home in St. Clair Township, outside of New Florence, in December 2023.
The victim was the mother of Fox-Beacom, whose own daughter was the girlfriend of Bates. A third defendant, 20-year-old Robert Jack, testified against Fox-Beacom and Bates, telling the court that he was the actual gunman, but that he shot Robson twice at the behest of the other two, and after Bates showed him how to shoot the .22-caliber revolver used in the murder, which divers recovered from Donegal Lake during the investigation.
The charges for which the two were found guilty require a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.
Jack is scheduled for trial April 13th. He admitted in court that he had been offered a sentence of 40 to 80 years in prison for third degree murder in exchange for his testimony against Fox-Beacom and Bates.
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