3 accused in shooting death of St. Clair woman waive right to hearing

A defense attorney said Friday he believes one of the three suspects accused in the death of a St. Clair Township woman may have taken advantage of the others.

Formal arraignments are set for next month for the trio: Melissa S. Fox-Beacom, 49, of New Florence; Robert Patrick Jack, 18, of Fairfield; and Matthew Bates, 18, of Ligonier Township. They are accused in the Dec. 11 shooting death of Alice I. Robson, 71, who was killed in her living room. Beacom is her daughter. Bates was dating Beacom’s daughter.

Each of the accused waived the right to a preliminary hearing Friday.

Westmoreland County detectives believe Beacom asked Bates and Jack to shoot Robson, whose body was found in an unfinished crawl space beneath the rear porch of her house three days later. Bates and Jack both blame each other for firing the fatal shot, according to court papers.

“I think the most unfortunate thing here, obviously, we got a loss of life, we got a lot of people affected — two young kids, too, 18 years old, who I think, unfortunately, to a certain extent, got taken advantage of by a much older woman,” said attorney Adam Gorzelsky, who is representing Bates.

None of the suspects said anything to reporters as they were led to and from district court Friday to sign their waiver paperwork.

The fatal shooting at Robson’s Furnace Road home stemmed from what police described in court papers as an ongoing dispute between Beacom and her mother over the custody of Robson’s grandson, who needs 24-hour supervision. Robson and her husband were granted custody of the boy in August 2019, according to court records. Prosecutors said Beacom asked Bates on several occasions to kill Robson.

Jack told police he threw the gun in Donegal Lake after keeping it in a trash bag in his vehicle for several days.

Jack and Bates are charged with criminal homicide, conspiracy to commit criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence in the death of Robson. Beacom was charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit criminal homicide and one count of criminal solicitation.

They remain at the Westmoreland County Prison without bail.