JURY SEATED FOR MURDER-FOR-HIRE TRIAL

A jury was seated yesterday for the trial of two people in a murder-for-hire plot from December of 2023.  The Trib reports that 51-year-old Melissa Fox-Beacom of New Florence and 20-year-old Matthew Jason Bates of Ligonier are charged in connection with the death of Fox-Beacom’s mother, 71-year-old Alice Robson in her home in St. Clair township.  Authorities allege Fox-Beacom coerced Bates, her daughter’s boyfriend, and another man, Robert Jack, 20, of Washington, to break into the home and kill Robson.