Man Gets 15 Years to Life in Prison for Murder

A 31-year-old Canyon Country man who authorities say drove young men to secluded areas and sexually assaulted them was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years to life in prison for a murder three years ago in a remote area north of Pyramid Lake.

Jeffrey Allan Works, 32, picked up a hitchhiking college student and took him to the desert, robbed him, apparently tried to sexually assault him, and killed him, authorities say.

He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder charges last month. But he might never have been caught had he not used the victim’s calling card to dial a 1-900 sex services number from his home.

Aleistar Martin, 19, had been trying to get back to the University of California at Berkeley campus after a visit with his girlfriend when Works picked him up near Magic Mountain Parkway on July 28, 1995.

Martin was never heard from again.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Marsh Goldstein said Berkeley police tracked down Works after discovering the calls on Martin’s calling card.

Works claimed he and Martin parted in the desert, and he showed authorities the area where he had last seen Martin. There they found his skeletal remains. He had been dead a month.

Goldstein said coroners were unable to determine a cause of death.

In their investigation, Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies found a police report filed by a man who claimed Works sexually assaulted him in a remote area, a case that initially went nowhere. But as detectives working the homicide continued to dig, they found three more young men, from 16 years old to middle 20s, who said Works had taken them to secluded areas and assaulted them. One was so desperate to get away he ran naked down the Ronald Reagan Freeway.

“I would have convicted him at a trial, but it would have been very hard on the surviving victims to talk publicly about their humiliation,” Goldstein said. Works was charged with all the sexual assaults in addition to the murder. The case dragged on with judges and appeals courts deciding whether the charges should be tried together or separately and during that time, Goldstein said, some of the strongest evidence against Works was uncovered.

He said the defendant asked a fellow inmate to murder one of his alleged sexual assault victims and another man.

Despite his plea, Works claims he did not murder Martin, that the teen must have succumbed to harsh weather. He has already served three years, and will serve at least 10 more years, authorities said.

“I truly think if the body had been found in time for an autopsy, I’d not be facing a lengthy stay in [prison] for murder,” Works told Superior Court Judge Judith Ashmann on Tuesday, reading from a prepared statement. He said he agreed to plead guilty in exchange for the sentence because it was his only hope of seeing his family again. Had he been convicted of all the charges, he would have faced well over 50 years to life in prison, Goldstein said.