CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / LOS ANGELES
A jury decided Wednesday that a 41-year-old man convicted of fatally shooting a car detailer and bludgeoning a prostitute to death with a pick hammer should be put to death.
Steven Anthony Jones also was convicted last month of attempting to murder three other people and raping a cellmate in Los Angeles County Jail during violent rampages in 2004 and 2005.
Attorney Robert A. Schwartz argued that Jones’ abusive childhood and a brain dysfunction left him unable to control rages and that he should be imprisoned for life.
But Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Blake told jurors that Jones did not lose control and that he deserved the death penalty, saying he carefully planned attacks and tried to cover his tracks.
-- Jack Leonard
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