Fullerton : Youth Gets Eight Years for His Role in Murder
A 17-year-old youth was sentenced Friday to eight years in custody of the California Youth Authority for helping to murder his girlfriend’s mother, a Fullerton woman who was the former head of an anti-violence program.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Ragnar Engebretsen sentenced Scott Oscar Paul of Whittier to 26 years to life, but as required by law ordered that Paul be put in CYA custody, meaning that he can be held at most until he is 25.
Paul received the same sentence as Jennifer Newton, who was 14 when the pair beat and stabbed to death Debbie Newton, 36, on Feb. 16, 1984, in the Newton home in Fullerton. Mrs. Newton was a former chairwoman of the Orange County Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and also ran a home for female incest victims.
The prosecution charged that the teen-agers killed Mrs. Newton because she tried to break up their romance. Paul, a runaway, had been living in the garage of the Newton residence for a month before the killing.
Paul was convicted of first-degree murder last month. His girlfriend was convicted after a separate trial last September.
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.
