Gardener Convicted of Murder in Slaying of Elderly Employer

A South-Central Los Angeles man was convicted Thursday of murder in the stabbing death of a 78-year-old woman who was affectionately known to her neighbors as “Miss Baby Ruth.”

Huey Ferguson, 35, is expected to be sentenced March 3 to life without the possibility of parole in the Jan., 22, 1993, slaying of Ruth Isabel Roberts in her home in the 700 block of West 73rd Street. Ferguson worked as a part-time gardener for Roberts, who had lived at the address for 55 years and got her nickname because she often handed out candy to children.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Renee Cartaya said there was no direct evidence linking Ferguson to the crime, but that one witness saw him jump over the front fence into Roberts’ yard before she was killed. Another witness originally told police that he later saw Ferguson jump over the victim’s back fence into an alley with her small television set, then overheard him confess the crime to his mother. But that witness, John Atkins, recanted those statements at Ferguson’s trial.

Cartaya showed the jury a videotape of Atkins making the original statement, however, and the panel apparently believed what he said then. The prosecutor speculated that Atkins had recanted because of “family pressures.” He lives with one of Ferguson’s nieces, she said.

Ferguson also was convicted of residential robbery and residential burglary.

Roberts’ body was discovered by neighbors, who became concerned when they could not reach her.