Steven Anthony Jones
Facts of the Crime:
Sentenced to death in Los Angeles County on August 14, 2009 for Neil Hacker's November 12, 2004 shooting death during a robbery at Critical Car Care in Quartz Hill and the December 2, 2004 beating death of Sharon Ann Willis in a Lancaster motel room.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy -- who earlier in the court session was told to "shut up" by Jones after she instructed him to be quiet -- said she hoped his apology was sincere. "Those apologies do not make up for the horrific crimes that you committed," the judge told the defendant, noting that "the violence that you have perpetrated has spanned years and years." Jones attributed his conduct to drugs and being on the streets at an early age, but the violence has continued since he has been in jail in connection with the murders, the judge said. "I don't think that you are a changed person. I hope that you are, but I don't think you are," she told Jones.
Kennedy said Hacker was "basically executed" for "the purpose of obtaining a few dollars," and that Willis was attacked with a pick hammer in a "particularly violent crime" in which she apparently suffered greatly in what was not a quick death. The judge noted that Jones was also convicted of a series of other violent crimes, which included:
-- trying to kill two other men on December 12, 2004, at a Lancaster home where he had rented a room;
-- sexually assaulting a fellow inmate in concert with another prisoner at the Men's Central Jail on June 10, 2005;
-- battering a deputy trying to extract him from his cell following that attack; and
-- torturing and trying to kill another inmate on December 20, 2005.
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