Jury Convicts Jackson in Woman’s Death

After deliberating for less than a week, a Ventura County Superior Court jury Wednesday found an Oxnard man guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances that could send him to Death Row.

Frederick Lee Jackson, 26, did not move or show any emotion as the verdict was read in Judge Allan L. Steele’s courtroom, where he was convicted of the murder and rape of Genoveva Gonzales.

Although jurors threw out a single count of kidnaping, they did find Jackson guilty of the rape of the mother of four, which could pave the way for him to be sentenced to death.

Christopher Sattiewhite, 25, has already been convicted and sentenced to death in the January, 1992, slaying.

The prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Patricia Murphy, said she was pleased with the jury’s decision.

“We believe it is an appropriate verdict based on the evidence,” Murphy said.

Defense attorney Charles L. Cassy said he believes that the testimony of Jackson’s friend Bobby Rollins helped persuade the jury that Jackson is guilty.

Rollins is believed to have come upon the scene before Gonzales was shot. In court, he accused Jackson of ordering Sattiewhite to open fire on Gonzales.

“Despite that, I don’t know of anyone who has heard (Rollins’) testimony who believes him,” Cassy said.

William Maxwell, Jackson’s other defense attorney, agreed.

“This case proves it can be done,” Maxwell said. “You can get a murder conviction by perjury.”

As they had argued during Sattiewhite’s trial, prosecutors painted Jackson as the man in charge, saying that Sattiewhite was following his friend’s orders when he shot Gonzales three times in the face and left her partially nude body in an Arnold Road drainage ditch.

During the trial, prosecutors told jurors that Jackson had the only motive to kill Gonzales because she knew him before she was killed and could possibly identify him.

Prosecutors said Jackson, Rollins and Sattiewhite were members of the same gang that sold drugs. And, they added, as members of the gang, the trio was together during the commission of at least one other violent incident.

In late 1991, while Sattiewhite held a gun on her boyfriend, Jackson and Rollins raped a Thousand Oaks woman at an Oxnard beach. Before fleeing, the trio also robbed the couple.

Jackson received a 28-year sentence for his part in the rape and robbery, but Rollins had 30 years removed from a potential 50-year sentence in exchange for his testimony against Jackson and Sattiewhite at their murder trials.

During Jackson’s trial, Rollins testified that he had made arrangements to meet with Sattiewhite and Jackson the night of the slaying and arrived just as the unconscious Gonzales was being dragged from the car by Sattiewhite before she was shot.

But during the trial, defense attorneys argued that Rollins was in the car with Sattiewhite and that it was on his orders that Gonzales was shot.

Evidence from genetic testing that linked Jackson to the rape also refuted a claim by Jackson that Gonzales had voluntarily had sex with him a day or two before the killing in exchange for cocaine.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn dismissed Jackson’s claim, saying that a toxicological examination of Gonzales’ body by coroners showed that the woman had no drugs in her system when she died.

The case will next move to a penalty phase, where jurors will deliberate whether Jackson should be sentenced to die or be imprisoned for life. That phase is due to start May 8.