The Region - News from April 30, 1986

Linda Sue Jones was sentenced to 29 years to life in prison for the February, 1984, first-degree murder of her attorney-husband and for six counts of grand theft involving more than $700,000. The 32-year-old Marina del Rey woman, who worked as a legal secretary in her husband’s office, cried as Superior Court Judge Alexander R. Early III sentenced her after denying a defense motion for a new trial. The prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles Girot, said he was satisfied, while defense attorney Harland W. Braun described the sentence as “excessive.” At the trial, the prosecution had argued that Jones killed her husband, Lewis Jones, 54, after he discovered that she was stealing from his friends and clients to support a compulsive gambling habit. Braun maintained that his client was innocent, saying that her husband was involved in illegal activities, including money laundering, and that those dealings led to his death.