Steven Anthony Jones, a ‘killing machine,’ sentenced to death

Victims’ relatives confront him, and he blames his crimes on childhood abuse.

By Jack Leonard

August 15, 2009

Jurors described him as a “killing machine.” A prosecutor likened him to a crocodile lurking in the water awaiting his prey. Even one of his attorneys acknowledged his startling resume of violence.

On Friday, Steven Anthony Jones was sentenced to death for fatally shooting one man in an execution-style robbery and bludgeoning to death a woman during a long string of violence, torture and rape that stretched from Lancaster to Arizona and into a Los Angeles County jail.

Jones, who had interrupted his trial earlier this year with several outbursts, muttered complaints to himself as Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy listed his many convictions.

“Mr. Jones, be quiet,” the judge snapped.

“No, you shut up,” Jones, 41, shot back. A sheriff’s deputy moved toward him, and Jones, wearing orange jail scrubs and with his hands cuffed to a waist chain, fell silent.

One by one, relatives of his murdered victims looked Jones in the eye and told him he had destroyed their lives.

“You show no guilt or remorse and act as if all this is just a game,” said Carrie Lienhard, whose fiance was shot in the back of the head by Jones. “For me, it’s a nightmare and I’ll never wake up from it.”

Howard Duncan, whose sister was fatally beaten by Jones with a pick hammer, said he doubted Jones felt compassion for his victims.

“You’ve devastated a lot of people’s lives,” Duncan told him.

Jones turned to the audience in the downtown L.A. courtroom and said he understood he had ruined lives and was sorry.

He blamed an abusive childhood and an addiction to drugs for his violence.

“From the bottom of my heart, I apologize,” he said. “I never knew about love. I never knew about family. . . . All I knew was violence.”