Killer Sentenced, married by Same Judge, Same Day

Just hours after being sentenced to two consecutive 25-year-to-life terms in the deaths of an Anaheim couple, Charles O. Sabbath went back before the same judge Friday--but this time to get married.

Sabbath and his fiancee, Lois Ward of Orange, were married in a courtroom ceremony performed by Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan. It was Ryan, just several hours earlier, who accused the 26-year-old Sabbath of lying about his role in the murders and then handed him the harshest sentence he could, two consecutive terms of 25 years to life.

Sabbath, who tearfully told the court he never meant for anyone to get hurt, will be 60 years old before he is eligible for his first parole hearing.

“It could not-- could not --have happened the way you told police it happened,” Ryan told the defendant.

A small group, including Sabbath’s mother, father and two sisters, gathered in Ryan’s 11th-floor courtroom for the brief ceremony before the judge. Then bailiffs removed Sabbath’s handcuffs to allow him to pose with his new bride for a picture.

Sabbath’s psychologist, Laura Poole, then snapped a photograph of the couple with their arms draped around each other. That done, the bailiffs put the handcuffs back on Sabbath and led him out through the rear of the courtroom.

Ward left the courthouse with Sabbath’s family members and refused to speak to reporters.

Sabbath was convicted of first-degree murder in June in the deaths of Ricardo Van Stubbs, 27, and Suzanne Elizabeth Rivera, 26. Their bodies were found tied up nine days after the July 21, 1989, fatal shootings.

Jurors found that Sabbath’s partner, John Jay Jordan, whose trial is still pending, did the actual shooting and refused to return a finding of multiple murder against Sabbath because it requires an intent to kill. Many of the jurors told prosecutors they did not believe Sabbath meant for the defendants to be harmed. A multiple murder finding would have meant an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole.

Despite the jurors’ reaction, Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles J. Middleton told the court that Sabbath deserved the harshest penalty the court could give him because he had solicited Jordan to help him rob Stubbs. Sabbath told police he was angry because Stubbs, an acknowledged drug dealer, owed him money and he had gone to his apartment to get it back.

The judge noted at Friday’s sentencing hearing that whatever Stubbs owed Sabbath, “he certainly didn’t owe him what was taken.”

Sabbath tearfully told the court that whoever takes a life deserves the death penalty. But, he added, he was not guilty of having anyone killed.

“No one should have to die over something like this,” Sabbath said. “To the family (of the victims) I can only say, I’m sorry. I’m sorry everything happened the way it did. It was stupidity on my part to go over there.”

At one point Ryan noted that no one will ever know what happened when the two were killed.

Sabbath answered him: “I know what happened . . . to my knowledge, I didn’t know they were killed.”

But Ryan answered that Sabbath was not telling the truth. Sabbath claims that he was not even at the apartment when the two victims were robbed and then left tied up. He said Jordan must have returned to the apartment to kill them.

But prosecutors contend Sabbath was there, and Ryan added that evidence at the trial proved Sabbath was lying about the extent of his involvement.

Rivera’s stepfather, Peter Sutherland, told the court about her family’s grief at her death.

“We feel impotent to describe how we really and truly feel,” he said with a quivering voice. “She was an integral part of a loving family, and no one in court is speaking of her today.”

The investigation into the two deaths resulted from a bizarre turn of events. Prosecutors allege that Jordan confessed the killing to a police informant in Riverside County. Authorities there began calling police agencies in Orange County to see if any double murders had occurred. It was several days later that the two bodies were discovered.

Sabbath’s attorney, Joel W. Baruch, left the courtroom morose over Sabbath’s consecutive sentences.

“We defense lawyers look at things differently from prosecutors and judges, because we get to know the defendants,” he said. “I know this man; he did not deserve that kind of sentence for his part in this.”

Jordan, 27, faces a possible death penalty at his trial, which is scheduled for later this month but is expected to be postponed.