Lancaster Mother Is Convicted of Murder : Crime: Belita Fox killed the man she said gave drugs to her daughter, a jury finds. She blamed him for the girl’s running away from home.

A jury convicted a Lancaster woman Thursday of murdering a construction worker she accused of giving her teen-age daughter drugs, rejecting the woman’s claim that she was defending herself and her daughter when she shot the man repeatedly in his bed.

The verdict in Lancaster Superior Court came after two days of deliberations. Jurors said afterward that they did not believe 41-year-old Belita Fox when she said she confronted Kevin Furman at his house in Lancaster to warn him about giving drugs to her teen-age daughter, who was not at the house. Fox said she shot Furman because he rose to his knees in bed about three feet from her, which she interpreted as a threatening move.

“The evidence didn’t bear it out,” said juror Mary Ann Floyd. “We explored everything. . . . To a person, we are confident that we made the right decision.”

The trajectory of the bullets and testimony of a witness, Furman’s roommate, contradicted Fox’s account, indicating that Furman, 23, was prone in bed when Fox shot him four times shortly after midnight Aug. 30. Fox testified that she sat by the body for at least half an hour before calling her daughter and then calling authorities.

The jury rejected the defense portrayal of an anguished mother fighting to protect her 17-year-old daughter, Cheryl Wilson. Fox’s lawyer, Vincent Oliver, described Furman as “drug scum” and the “top man” in a drug house, referring in closing arguments to the ravages of the drug problem nationwide.

But juror Jaime Levario said of the dead man: “I didn’t think he was drug scum. To me, drug scum is someone who’s ruthless. . . . He didn’t seem like that.”

A witness testified that Furman sold methamphetamine on two occasions and used drugs occasionally. He testified that Cheryl used methamphetamine and marijuana at the house, but Furman was not there at the time.

Sheriff’s detectives said they did not believe Furman was a drug dealer. And Furman’s roommate testified that Furman did not permit minors to use drugs at the house, and that he never saw Furman use drugs with Cheryl, Furman’s girlfriend’s cousin.

Fox, who cried frequently during the four-day trial, remained calm as the verdict was read and deputies took her into custody. She had been free on $100,000 bail.

She faces a sentence of 27 years to life when she appears for sentencing before Judge Margaret Grignon on June 28. Oliver said he plans to appeal.

Furman’s mother, Jean Harmon, and a contingent of relatives and friends wept and hugged one another and jurors outside the courtroom. Harmon said the verdict partially vindicated her dead son of Fox’s drug-dealing allegations, which caused Harmon to organize a “Justice for Kevin” campaign, with buttons and T-shirts.

“She is behind bars where she belongs,” Harmon said. “She won’t be able to hurt anyone else’s children.”

In reaching the first-degree murder conviction, jurors rejected additional defenses that Fox was drunk and did not know the gun was loaded. Jurors said they agreed with Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Foltz’s charge that Fox targeted Furman because she irrationally blamed him for Cheryl’s running away from home and the breakup of her family.

“I believe she planned it,” Levario said. “She thought it through. She wanted revenge on somebody.”

Foltz said: “I don’t feel that the jurors felt the drug situation at Furman’s house was anywhere close to how it was portrayed. Or that they feel that someone deserves summary execution for a crime for which they would be jailed.”

Oliver said he had expected the jury to find Fox guilty of a lesser charge, such as second-degree murder. He said jurors did not give sufficient weight to potential mitigating factors, including Fox’s testimony that she drank 10 beers and two or three shots of liquor before the shooting.

Oliver said that Cheryl now lives with relatives in another community, which he did not identify. Cheryl did not attend the trial, but Fox’s other two children did. Her 21-year-old daughter, Christine Wilson, remained in her seat crying after Fox was led away and other spectators had left the courtroom.