A 35-year-old Fairfield man will spend the rest of his life behind bars after pleading guilty Friday to the 2013 rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl, according to the Solano County District Attorney’s Office.
Anthony Lamar Jones will be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole when he appears in court on June 24, the DA’s office said in a news release.
Prior to admitting his role in the homicide, the defendant had entered a not guilty plea in the brutal rape and murder of middle school student Genelle Conway-Allen, television station KOVR in Sacramento reported.
Jones was accused of following the Suisun City girl as she walked from school on Jan. 31, 2013, and ordering the teen into his car, according to the Associated Press.
She was then tied up, sexually assaulted and strangled.
Her naked body was found the following day face down on a cement median in Allan Witt Park, KTLA sister station KTXL reported.
In addition to pleading guilty to the murder charge, Jones also “admitted as true” that the homicide was “committed during the commission of rape, during the commission of kidnapping, during the commission of a lewd or lascivious act upon a child under 14 years of age, and during the commission of sodomy,” the release stated.
The defendant had faced the possibility of a death sentence for the “heinous crime,” according to prosecutors. The DA’s office consulted with Fairfield police and the victim’s family before deciding on the punishment.
“Although the People strongly feel death is the appropriate punishment for this horrific crime, the plea brings finality and closure to the victim’s family, the police department, and our community and it provides certainty that the defendant will spend the rest of his life in prison,” the release said.