Test Ordered for Convicted Girl
Sentencing has been postponed and a psychological profile ordered for Beatrice Jones, the 17-year-old convicted this month of aiding and abetting the murder of Celso Alvarez, a West Covina service station operator and stepfather of the man accused of the murder.
Pomona Superior Court Judge Peter S. Smith ordered Jones, also of West Covina, to spend 90 days in a California Youth Authority facility where psychologists will assess her mental condition before she returns to court for sentencing, a court clerk said. She could be incarcerated for up to 16 months, fined $5,000 or placed on probation.
Jones was convicted of trying to provide an alibi for Donald Eugene Hoyt, 21, who was arrested last summer in the August murder. Police also arrested Hoyt’s mother, Sharon Alvarez, 38, and allege that she paid Hoyt $1,300 to shoot her husband, 55. The mother, son and a third defendant, Charles Monroe Peterson Jr., accused of driving a getaway car, are scheduled for trial on murder charges in June.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
