Lancaster Woman Guilty of Murder : Verdict: Jury did not believe mother was defending herself when she shot man four times because he gave her daughter drugs.

A Lancaster woman was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder in the death of a construction worker she accused of giving her teen-age daughter drugs.

The Lancaster Superior Court jury rejected the woman’s claim that she was defending herself and her daughter when she shot Kevin Furman repeatedly in his bed.

Jurors, who deliberated two days, said they did not believe 41-year-old Belita Fox when she said she confronted Furman at his house in Lancaster to warn him about giving drugs to her teen-age daughter. 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,” juror Mary Ann Floyd said. “We explored everything. . . . To a person we are confident that we made the right decision.”

The trajectory of the bullets and testimony of an eyewitness, 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 17-year-old daughter, Cheryl, and then calling authorities.

The jury rejected the defense portrayal of an anguished mother fighting to protect her child.

Defense 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 victim: “To me drug scum is someone who’s ruthless. . . . He didn’t seem like that.”

One witness testified that Furman sold methamphetamines on two occasions and used drugs occasionally. He testified that the defendant’s daughter used methamphetamines and marijuana at the house, but Furman was not present at the time.

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 each other and jurors outside the courtroom. Harmon said the verdict partially vindicated her dead son of Fox’s drug-dealing allegations, which led Harmon to organize a “Justice for Kevin” campaign that included 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 their decision, jurors rejected additional defenses that Fox was drunk and did not know the gun was loaded at the time of the shooting. Panel members said they agreed with Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Foltz’s charge that Fox targeted Furman because she irrationally blamed him for her daughter’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.”