Man Given Life Term in Murder : Courts: Jury decides death penalty would be too punitive for Frederick Jackson, convicted of raping a woman and then ordering her death.

Frederick L. Jackson, convicted of raping an Oxnard mother of four and then ordering her death, was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without parole by a jury that decided the death penalty would be too punitive.

Jackson, 26, is the second man convicted for the 1992 murder of 30-year-old Genoveva Gonzales, who was shot three times in the head and left in a drainage ditch in Oxnard.

The triggerman, Christopher Sattiewhite, was sentenced to Death Row last year after a separate trial.

But members of the Jackson jury--which deliberated only three hours before reaching its verdict--said it would have been unfair to give the Oxnard resident a death sentence for a murder committed by Sattiewhite.

“We felt that Mr. Jackson was not the killer he was alleged to be,” said jury foreman Scott Olson.

The Jackson verdict came two days after another Ventura County inmate was sentenced to death. Thousand Oaks killer Mark Scott Thornton, 20, received the death penalty for the 1993 carjack slaying of a Westlake nurse.

Thornton and Sattiewhite join seven others sent to Death Row by Ventura County judges and juries.

Jackson’s attorneys said they were relieved the jury voted against a death sentence for their client. But they criticized prosecutors, saying the district attorney’s office abused its authority by seeking the death penalty for someone who had not actually committed a murder.

“We’re not happy with the way this case was prosecuted,” said defense attorney William C. Maxwell, a former prosecutor.

“It’s win at all cost,” added Jackson’s second attorney, Charles L. Cassy. “It’s not about justice.”

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The lead prosecutor on the case, Donald C. Glynn, left court without commenting and did not return calls.

His supervisor, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Ronald C. Janes, said prosecutors do not regret their decision to seek the death penalty against Jackson.

“This was a crime that we needed to bring to the community and ask for the death penalty,” Janes said. “I think we would do it again under these circumstances.”

In April, the same jury found Jackson guilty of first-degree murder, rape and kidnaping. Under state law, jurors said, Jackson was guilty of murder because he raped Gonzales before Sattiewhite killed her.

According to testimony, Jackson and Sattiewhite kidnaped Gonzales in Oxnard on Jan. 26, 1992.

They eventually took her to an isolated area along Arnold Road, where Jackson raped the woman in the back seat of a car and Sattiewhite shot her three times in the head.

The next day, two passing fishermen found her body.

Investigators linked Jackson, Sattiewhite and a third man to the murder months later while investigating a separate robbery and rape on an Oxnard beach.

In exchange for a lighter sentence for the beach rape, the third suspect--Bobby Rollins of Long Beach--gave police information on Sattiewhite and Jackson’s involvement in Gonzales’ murder.

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At Jackson’s trial, Rollins testified that before Gonzales was taken to the murder site, Jackson raped her in the parking lot of an Oxnard apartment complex.

After again raping her on Arnold Road, Jackson ordered Sattiewhite to shoot the woman so she could not identify Jackson, Rollins said.

Rollins denied that he was involved with the murder, saying he drove up just as Gonzales was being shot.

Jurors, however, said they believed he was at least an accomplice to the murder. For his testimony, Rollins received assurances from prosecutors that he would not be charged in the Gonzales murder.

He also received a promise that he would be sentenced to no more than 20 years in connection with the beach rape. He could have received up to 50 years for that conviction.

“We felt that he should not have gotten the deal,” said one juror, who asked for anonymity.

Superior Court Judge Allan Steele set formal sentencing for July 22.