2nd Defendant Sentenced in 1988 Murder : Crime: George Marvin Trone Jr. will spend the rest of his life in prison for robbing, raping and murdering Lois Haro.
PASADENA — For the family of Lois Haro, who was abducted from a Pasadena shopping mall, robbed, raped and murdered, a three-year court ordeal ended last week when a second defendant was ordered to spend the rest of his life in prison.
Pasadena Superior Court Judge Charles C. Lee imposed the no parole sentence, and additional penalties, on George Marvin Trone Jr., 21, after members of the victim’s family testified about the depth of their loss and the stress of sitting through three trials filled with graphic accounts of the crime.
“It makes me sick to my stomach to think of what happened to her,†the victim’s husband, Tony Haro of Pasadena, told the judge as he and other family members demanded the maximum sentence.
He described the murder of his 26-year-old wife as “the most horrible, brutal crime a woman can experience. There is no justice on this Earth that can satisfy the hurt I feel . . . I never thought that, at the age of 27, I would be staring into the casket of the woman I loved.â€
Investigators said Lois Haro was accosted by two men on Oct. 18, 1988, as she returned to her car at the Plaza Pasadena. The men took her away in Haro’s car, stole her jewelry, sexually attacked her, then shot her once in the head so that she could not identify them.
Early last year, Trone’s accomplice, Ronald Anthony Jones, 21, named by police as the triggerman, was convicted and sentenced to death.
At the end of a separate trial last September, a jury convicted Trone of first-degree murder, but deadlocked on special circumstances--whether Trone intended to kill Haro while committing other crimes against her. Under such a finding, a defendant can be sentenced to death, or life without possibility of parole.
A third jury found in December that special circumstances existed. The panel was preparing to decide whether to impose the death penalty when Trone entered into a plea bargain on Jan. 16. The prosecutor agreed not to seek the death penalty if Trone admitted his guilt, waived any rights to an appeal and accepted life without parole.
Family members took the stand Thursday to urge maximum sentences on the remaining counts--kidnap, rape, robbery and forced oral copulation. Deputy Dist. Atty. Walt Lewis said the additional penalties could be important, because some inmates serving life in prison without possibility of parole have been released.
Lee ordered Trone to serve an additional life sentence for the kidnaping, nine years for rape and eight years for forced oral copulation. The additional sentences, to be served consecutively, make it unlikely that Trone will ever be released, court officials said.
“He’s up there forever, and it’s over,†Elsie Purnell, the victim’s mother, said afterward.
“He (Trone) has killed a part of us too,†her husband, Herbert Purnell, said. “We will never truly recover from Trone’s brutal act.â€
Trone showed no emotion in court Thursday. But his attorney, Charles E. Dickerson III, said his client asked him to express his regret.
“He too has cried, and he too has felt pain,†the lawyer said. “He too feels a deep sense of sorrow, not just for Lois Haro, but for her family.â€
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