Aliquippa, Pa. — A Beaver County jury found Ronald Foster guilty of third-degree murder Tuesday.
Police say Foster, who was 17 last September, planned a robbery that resulted in the fatal shootings of 18-year-old Dane Mathesius and 16-year-old William Cade Booher.
The former Aliquippa high school football player also was found guilty for conspiracy to commit robbery.
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Police say the victims went to Aliquippa to sell drugs, but the deal went sideways and the teens were shot inside a car.
A 13-year-old in the front seat managed to get out alive.
Family members of Foster left court in tears after hearing the jury's verdict.
The Beaver County district attorney told Channel 11 that Foster deliberately set up the victims to be robbed when they made the trip to Aliquippa last September to sell marijuana.
Mathesius and Booher were killed over a $160 drug deal, prosecutors say.
“The jury understood that and convicted Foster of being the mastermind who drew the victims into Aliquippa for the purposes of being robbed,” county DA David Lozier said.
Lozier said Foster did not actually pull the trigger.
"We had to convince they jury that the individual on trial today was guilty of murder although he did not pull the trigger. He set up another person to get in the car with a gun," Lozier said.
The teenager who prosecutors said pulled the trigger, 17 -year-old Lawrence Reddick, is in jail awaiting his trial which is scheduled for April
“We respect the jury's verdict and now we move on to sentencing which will be Oct. 17,” Lozier said.
Cox Media Group
