Mother Arrested in Death of Man She Said Gave Daughter Drugs

A Lancaster mother shot and killed a construction worker in his bed early Wednesday, accusing the man of having given her 17-year-old daughter drugs, authorities said.

Belita Fox, 40, was arrested on suspicion of murder in the slaying of Kevin Furman, 23, who Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators said was shot at least three times in the chest with a .38-caliber revolver. Three other occupants fled the house uninjured.

After the shooting, Fox called the 911 emergency number, waited in the dead man’s room and surrendered peacefully to deputies, authorities said. Detectives said family members told them that Fox also telephoned her daughter from the scene and told her of the shooting.

The daughter, Cheryl Wilson, told detectives that she had used drugs with Furman on occasion, Sheriff’s Sgt. Clinton Dillon said. Although detectives believe that there was social drug use at the house, there was no indication that Furman or any of the other tenants were drug dealers, Dillon said.

Dillon declined to say whether drugs were found at the slaying scene.

Declined to Talk

Fox, who is separated from her husband, declined to talk to detectives and requested a lawyer. She was seen drinking at several bars in Lancaster on Tuesday night before the shooting, Dillon said.

“She made threats to kill an individual she believed had given her daughter drugs,” Dillon said.

Fox reportedly told fellow bar patrons that she was concerned that the drugs would harm her daughter, who has a heart murmur, investigators said.

The daughter, the youngest of Fox’s three children, had left Fox’s home recently because of family problems and had been staying with relatives and at Furman’s home, according to authorities and friends of the victim. They described Furman and the girl as friends who had known each other about six months.

Three other men were asleep in the house in the 42500 block of 5th Street East, a dirt road in a secluded, semirural part of Lancaster, when Fox arrived alone about 12:30 a.m. and asked to speak to Furman, who was asleep, detectives said.

Did Not See Gun

“She asked for the victim; she said she wanted to talk to him,” Dillon said. The witnesses did not see the gun, which Fox may have carried in her purse, Dillon said.

Mark Dallachie, a friend of Furman’s who lives one house away, said two of the three other men who were in the house ran to his home about 12:30 a.m. and told him that after Fox entered Furman’s bedroom, they heard raised voices and about seven gunshots.

Dallachie, who said he and the other men are all construction workers, said Fox’s daughter occasionally slept on the couch at Furman’s house. He said he knew of no drug use at the house. However, he said, Fox disapproved of her daughter’s friendship with the men and once had come to the neighborhood looking for her.

Norma Adair, one of Fox’s neighbors on nearby 7th Street East in Lancaster, described the woman as “very protective of her children” and described the teen-age daughter as a “very sweet girl” who had dropped out of high school but then returned to a special continuation school.

“I’m as shocked as everybody else,” said the neighbor, who described Fox as having a strong temper but said that she knew of no family problems.

Daughter With Relative

On Wednesday, Fox’s daughter remained at the home of a relative, where she was staying when Fox called her from the shooting scene. Authorities did not give details of what Fox said to her daughter or to the 911 operator, other than that Fox told the operator that “there has been a murder here.”

Deputies found Fox seated in a kitchen chair near the bed where Furman’s body lay.

“She was sitting and rocking back and forth, just rocking back and forth,” Dillon said.