This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
A man arrested last year for murder in the cold case of a 1985 murder was sentenced Friday to serve life without the possibility of parole. 56-year-old Stafford Joel Spicer, 56, was convicted in October of first-degree murder in the death of Joanne Marie Jones, a 23-year-old aspiring model whose decomposing body was found in Angeles National Forest in June of 1985--two months after Jones was reported missing.
As part of his conviction, jurors found true the special circumstance allegations of murder during the commission of a kidnapping, rape and robbery, reports City News Service. The panel also found that Spicer personally used a knife during the crime.
DNA analysis linked Spicer to the crime when the case was re-investigated in 2008.
Spicer had been pulled over and arrested shortly after Jones disappeared. Long Beach Police pulled him over while he drove Jones' 1978 Camaro. However Spicer was let go due to lack of evidence tying him to the crime at the time.
