A person who raped and murdered a pregnant girl in her Costa Mesa dwelling 1 / 4 of a century in the past was sentenced to loss of life Friday.
Jason Michael Balcom strangled and stabbed 22-year-old Malinda Gibbons within the chest on July 18, 1988.
Her husband, Kent Gibbons, discovered his spouse lifeless of their condo, certain and gagged along with his neckties. Police stated she had been sexually assaulted.
On the time of the crime, Balcom, then 18, was dwelling along with his mom and aunt in a Costa Mesa motel lower than a mile away from the condo. He had been launched from juvenile corridor simply weeks earlier than the homicide.
Investigators cracked the chilly case greater than a decade later when DNA proof linked Balcom, now 43, to the crime.
Balcom’s DNA was entered right into a nationwide database in 2004 after he was convicted of rape in Michigan, the place he and his mom moved after the homicide.
He was serving a 50-year jail time period when Orange County prosecutors extradited him to face trial.
In 2012, an Orange County jury convicted Balcom of first-degree homicide with sentencing enhancements for homicide throughout fee of sodomy, rape, theft and housebreaking. However jurors deadlocked on whether or not to advocate the loss of life penalty.
A second jury really useful the loss of life penalty final 12 months, a call that was affirmed in Superior Court docket on Friday.
Twitter: @jeremiahdobruck
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