Killer-Rapist Sentenced to 24 Years to Life
A 27-year-old Canoga Park man was sentenced Tuesday to 24 years to life in prison for murdering a man and raping a woman in unrelated incidents the same night.
Robert James Jones pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder in the April 29 killing of Tyrone Lanier, 29, the boyfriend of Jones’ mother’s girlfriend. Jones also admitted raping a 35-year-old Reseda woman about an hour before killing Lanier, Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard F. Walmark said.
Lanier was shot about 10:45 p.m. in his apartment in the 21800 block of Saticoy Street in Canoga Park.
Officials said Lanier and Jones struggled, and Jones shot Lanier about five times. in the upper body. The men were quarreling over two women who were staying in Lanier’s apartment, police said.
Jones had accosted a woman and raped her at gunpoint in her car about 9:45 p.m., Walmark said.
Jones was sentenced by Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Darlene E. Schempp.
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