Man Convicted of Killing Chatsworth High Student

An 18-year-old gang member was convicted Tuesday of the fatal shooting of a Chatsworth High School student outside a fast-food restaurant last year.

Jason Jones, who was a minor at the time of the killing and was prosecuted as an adult, was convicted of first-degree murder in the Oct. 29, 1998 death of Aaron Bruce Nathaniel, 18, during an argument outside the Carl’s Jr. restaurant at De Soto Avenue and Lassen Street, Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig Richman said.

Jones was also convicted of the attempted murder of his girlfriend, an incident that took place 11 days before Nathaniel’s murder.

Nathaniel and Jones were acquainted, Richman said, and Jones told several people he was going to shoot Nathaniel. But Richman said the circumstances that led to the shooting were not known.

Jones, who represented himself during the four-week trial, argued that he fired in self-defense, Richman said, because he thought Nathaniel was coming after him with the intent to shoot him.

Nathaniel was not armed, Richman said, and was approaching Jones to work out their problems.

“The victim went outside to talk to him, to talk out this stuff, and the defendant just wheeled around and opened fire on him,” Richman said. Jones fired at least seven rounds from his 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol, four of which struck Nathaniel.

Nathaniel, the son of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, was pronounced dead at Northridge Hospital Medical Center.

Jones, who lived in Lancaster, was hanging out in Chatsworth to avoid his juvenile probation officer, Richman said. He said that in a prophetic report written a month before the Carl’s Jr. slaying, the probation officer predicted that Jones would someday kill someone.

Richman said Jones was an admitted gang member with an extensive juvenile criminal record for violent crimes including armed robbery.

On Tuesday, the jury also convicted Jones of the attempted murder of his ex-girlfriend and of firing shots into her home in an Oct. 18, 1998 incident outside her Lancaster apartment.

Richman said Jones punched and kicked the girl during an argument. When she got away and ran inside, he fired his gun into the residence but missed the occupants.