State Court Reaffirms Death Sentence for Girl’s Killer

The California Supreme Court on Thursday reaffirmed the death sentence for a former ice cream man convicted of kidnaping, raping and murdering a Baldwin Park girl he lured into his truck in 1982.

The court affirmed the death sentence of Robert Edward Stansbury two years ago but revisited the case at the order of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The highest court, in a rebuke of the California justices, ruled unanimously last year that the state court had misapplied the law when it rejected Stansbury’s appeal.

Relying on a different legal analysis, the state justices decided in Thursday’s ruling that there was still sufficient evidence to find that the death sentence was valid.

The issue before the court was whether police violated Stansbury’s Miranda rights by not advising him that he could remain silent before questioning him. The police contended that Stansbury was not considered a suspect when he was first interviewed, making the reading of Miranda warnings unnecessary.

If the defense showed a Miranda violation, he could have been entitled to a new trial because in the original trial a prosecutor used a statement he made before the reading of his rights.

In affirming Stansbury’s sentence in 1993, the California court relied partially on the state of mind of the officers when they questioned Stansbury. The officers said they initially considered him a witness, not a suspect.

The U.S. Supreme Court said the opinions of the officers should not have been considered in determining whether a violation occurred and told the California court to reconsider the appeal.

Stansbury was sentenced to death for murdering Robyn Jackson, who disappeared from a Baldwin Park playground on Sept. 28, 1982. The next morning a witness saw a large man emerge from a turquoise sedan and throw something into a flood channel in Pasadena. Police, called to the scene, found the child’s body.

Investigators said they initially suspected another ice cream driver and contacted Stansbury as a potential witness.

Even after disregarding the officers’ state of mind, the California court found no Miranda violation because of other evidence indicating that Stansbury was initially treated as a witness.