TWO EDINBORO STUDENTS KILLED IN APPARENT DRUG DEAL GONE BAD

Two charred bodies with fatal bullet wounds. Two suspects. A burned-out
car. A thousand dollars in cash. It had all the ingredients of another drug
deal that went south.

Only in this case, one of the victims and one of the suspects knew each
other on the campus of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and, by some
accounts, were considered to be friends.

William Paxton, 20, of Brighton Heights, and Craig Hairston, 22, of
Elliott, were each charged Wednesday night with two counts of homicide.

Paxton is a student at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, where he was a
residence hall adviser and a member of the football team.

According to people on campus, Paxton was a friend of one of the victims,
Jeremy Lindsey, 20, of Erie, who was a student at Edinboro.

The other victim, Joseph Clayton, 20, of Erie, was Lindsey's high school
classmate and had just transferred to Edinboro.

Both men were shot in the back of the head.

Their bodies were found Monday night in a 1995 Infinity that had been set
ablaze on Voeghtly Street, behind a vacant warehouse near the Veterans Bridge.

Lindsey was shot three times and was in the front seat. Clayton was shot
once and was in the back seat, according to Detective Sgt. Keith Andrews.

The bodies were burned beyond recognition. The Allegheny County coroner's
office identified them from dental records.

Andrews said one of the two men has made several trips to Pittsburgh to buy
marijuana.

The other man appears to have been an innocent victim. Andrews would not
identify which man was the suspected drug dealer.

The car was leased by a woman in Erie who is Lindsey's aunt, and she told
police that Lindsey had often borrowed the car.

"Apparently," Andrews said, "the car was burned to cover up the evidence.
But a lot of times the attempt to cover up leaves more evidence."

The license plate was undamaged by the fire, and that led police to
Lindsey's aunt.

Seventeen homicide detectives worked on the case around the clock, and
Andrews, who coordinated the effort, credited a team that went to Erie with
breaking the case open.

In Erie, the police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the families
of the two victims helped the detectives identify the victims' friends and
associates.

Initially, Paxton and Hairston were interviewed as witnesses.

Andrews said one of the victims brought to Pittsburgh about $1,000, enough
to buy a kilo of marijuana that could have been resold for $1,600.

That victim was probably supplying the drug in Erie, Andrews said, but he
couldn't rule out Edinboro University as a destination.

Andrews said he thinks Paxton and Hairston planned to rob the men, but he
wouldn't say if he thought murder was part of the plot.

Some of the $1,000 drug money has been recovered.

No bail was set and both suspects were put in the Allegheny County Jail.
Their preliminary hearings are scheduled for Jan. 20.

The victims, Clayton and Lindsey, both played on the basketball team at
East High School in Erie and graduated in 1997.

Clayton went to Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He sat out a year, and
in December, Edinboro accepted him as a transfer student for the semester
beginning Monday. He had not declared a major.

Lindsey was a sophomore majoring in speech communication.

"He was very social," said university spokesman Bill Reed. "The Office of
Intercultural Affairs said he was always around, always talking to people,
but he didn't join anything."

Reed said Lindsey had no disciplinary problems.

"We've been dealing with the question all day. There is nothing on record
to indicate he was ever involved in narcotics, on or off campus."

Lindsey and his suspected killer, Paxton, were considered friends on campus.

"There never seemed to be any bad blood between [Paxton and Lindsey]. They
all hung around the same circle of friends. I figured they were all
friends," said Rob Barney, a tight end on the football team.

Paxton, a graduate of Perry High School on the North Side, was a junior
majoring in business marketing. He was a walk-on member of the football
team, where he played defensive back.

"The coaches speak highly of his work ethic," Reed said.

Paxton also was a residence hall adviser, "one of the more exalted
positions for students on campus," Reed said.

Residential advisers oversee discipline and activities of other students in
the dormitories, and they must pass a screening program to get the positions.

"As far as we can tell," Reed said, "he was a good campus citizen."

He said Paxton's co-defendant, Hairston, has no connection to the
university. Police said Hairston was employed at a jewelry store in Pittsburgh.

Reed said the university will increase security at campus events after
students return from their holiday break.

There could be an inquiry, if evidence in the case shows that drugs were
being sold on campus.

"For now, we want our students to know that this tragedy didn't happen on
campus. It happened in Pittsburgh," Reed said.

Meanwhile, the university is trying to cope with the spectacle of one of
its students being accused of killing two other students.

"When young kids come to us," Reed said, "they bring baggage, some good and
some bad. They come here to start anew. We are not permitted to check
criminal records of minors, as part of the admissions process. But when
they get here, we try to help them internalize the values of the
institution. Few go bad."