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Conviction: ‘I never knew about love. I never knew about family. . . . All I knew was violence.’

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Steven Anthony Jones, a 41-year old black man, was sentenced to death Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Jones had been convicted of multiple crimes in a spree that began when he shot and killed a man during a November 2004 robbery at a Quartz Hill car wash. The Times’ Jack Leonard reported from a downtown courtroom:

Jurors described him as a ‘killing machine.’ A prosecutor likened him to a crocodile lurking in the water awaiting his prey. Even one of his attorneys acknowledged his startling resume of violence.

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On Friday, Steven Anthony Jones was sentenced to death for fatally shooting one man in an execution-style robbery and bludgeoning to death a woman during a long string of violence, torture and rape that stretched from Lancaster to Arizona and into a Los Angeles County jail.

Jones, who had interrupted his trial earlier this year with several outbursts, muttered complaints to himself as Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy listed his many convictions.

‘Mr. Jones, be quiet,’ the judge snapped.

‘No, you shut up,’ Jones, 41, shot back. A sheriff’s deputy moved toward him, and Jones, wearing orange jail scrubs and with his hands cuffed to a waist chain, fell silent.

Read more: Steven Anthony Jones, a ‘killing machine,’ sentenced to death

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