SHAWNTE BETTS - 17 yo - Beltzhoover PA

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.
Allegheny
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.