Local News in Brief : Real Estate Agent Gets 8 Years in Killing of Girlfriend in Newhall
A Thousand Oaks real estate agent was sentenced Thursday to eight years in prison for the shooting death in August of his live-in girlfriend.
San Fernando Superior Court Judge Ronald S. W. Lew imposed the term on Richard Wayne O’Bryant, 41, in the death of Deborah Sue Jones, 34. In an agreement with prosecutors, O’Bryant, who was charged with murder, was allowed to plead guilty Nov. 18 to voluntary manslaughter.
A probation report prepared for the sentencing stated that O’Bryant shot Jones five times with a .22-caliber revolver after an argument Aug. 21 in the Newhall house they shared.
O’Bryant, a divorced father of five, had lived with Jones for six months before the killing.
The report stated that O’Bryant said the shooting took place “in the heat of passion.” O’Bryant said he and Jones, a tax consultant, had argued over her “flirtatious behavior” in a bar the evening of her death, the report said. He said Jones later told him to get out of the house and threw his clothes on the porch, the report said.
O’Bryant told police that after he grabbed a gun, Jones taunted him to use it.
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