Ex-Ice Cream Vendor Found Guilty of Rape and Murder of Girl

A former ice cream vendor was convicted Wednesday in the 1982 murder of a 10-year-old Baldwin Park girl.

Robert Edward Stansbury, 42, twitched a thumb but otherwise showed no emotion as the Pomona Superior Court jury’s verdict was read.

The victim’s mother, Sharon Sanchez,--who was present virtually every day of the three-month trial--burst into tears as the verdict was read and moments later hurriedly left the courtroom.

Three special circumstances necessary to qualify the Pomona man for the death penalty were found to be true by the jury: first-degree murder, rape and the commission of lewd acts.

The panel also found Stansbury guilty of inflicting great bodily injury on the victim, Robyn Leigh Jackson, whom the prosecution alleged was sodomized and placed in the ice cream cooler of the truck Stansbury regularly drove through her neighborhood.

Her body was found in a drainage ditch in Pasadena the morning after she was abducted.

Stansbury had previously told the jury that he wanted the death sentence if they convicted him. In a telephone interview from jail shortly after this conviction, Stansbury said:

“No leniency will be requested in any way whatsoever, and the death penalty will definitely be sought. . . . It was an erroneous conviction, but at the same time they (the jury) should have the courage to stand behind their beliefs. And I don’t think they will be able to do so.”

The jury’s other alternative is life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Judge James Piatt ordered the penalty phase to begin next Thursday.

Stansbury defended himself throughout the three-month trial with the help of Covina attorney David J. Daugherty.

After the verdict, Daugherty said he is certain that Stansbury will appeal the conviction. Stansbury would not comment, during the telephone interview Wednesday, on the prospects of an appeal.

The prosecution contended that Stansbury, a convicted rapist, used his role as an ice cream truck driver--a job forbidden by law to sex offenders--to enter, without suspicion, the Baldwin Park neighborhood where he selected Robyn as his victim after spending weeks winning her confidence with free treats.

“The jury was able to sort through all of the evidence and to reach what I believe an appropriate decision, even with the 160 or so pretrial motions by the defendant designed to frustrate the system,” the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Burns, said Wednesday.

Painstaking Research

Stansbury spent more than a year painstakingly researching his case and sought and received repeated delays.

Burns said several new witnesses will be introduced during the penalty phase, including at least three of Stansbury’s previous molestation victims. Information about Stansbury’s prior criminal record was kept from the jury during the trial.

Stansbury was on parole after serving time for sex crimes when he was arrested in the murder case in 1982. Robyn’s nude and beaten body was found by Andrew Zimmerman, who later testified that he was walking his dogs and noticed a large man throwing a pale object into the ditch in Pasadena.

A pathologist testified that Robyn’s body temperature was too low when she was found not to have been exposed to severe cold and that the girl showed signs of asphyxiation, apparently from being placed in the air-tight cooler.