PITTSBURGH -- A 26-year-old Pittsburgh man has been convicted of kidnapping and killing a 17-year-old girl and her friend after what prosecutors described as a failed ransom plot.
Police said James Jones, 26, of Wilkinsburg, and Shawnte Betts, a Beltzhoover girl who had recently graduated from Oliver High School, were abducted in broad daylight off a Lincoln Avenue sidewalk in the Lincoln-Lemington neighborhood in July 2004.
Jones was found shot dead the next day in Betts' car, which was parked on Marlboro Avenue in Wilkinsburg. The girl, also shot, was later found in some woods behind a home on North Avenue in Wilkinsburg.
Jaurvon Hopkins, of the East Hills, faces life in prison when he's sentenced on Feb. 17, because Tuesday's verdict included two second-degree murder convictions that carry automatic life sentences.
Hopkins' co-defendant, 25-year-old Lester Johnson, of the East Hills and Garfield areas, was convicted in May and also faces life in prison.
Slideshow: Photos Of The Crime Scene And Major Players In The CaseAllegheny County prosecutors say Betts and Jones were killed after an $80,000 ransom demand for Jones wasn't paid. Hopkins was arrested a few months later in Gwinnett County, Ga.
Prosecutors wanted the death penalty for Johnson, because they said he led the plot, while Hopkins was characterized as an accomplice.
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