Kimberly Jones and her family gathered at the fountain in front of Rancho Cucamonga Superior Court on Thursday, Jan. 15, and smiled for photos to commemorate the sunny, 78-degree day when her sister got justice.
Loved ones turned to show the backs of their shirts, revealing a black-and-white photo of Michelle “Missy” Jones, framed with her name and the message, “We Love You” in a looped, pink font.
Minutes earlier, Judge Ingrid Uhler sentenced the man convicted of killing the 18-year-old more than 45 years ago to 15 years to life in prison.
In November, a jury found 71-year-old Leonard Nash guilty of second-degree murder in the killing of the Pomona resident, whose half-naked body was found in a Fontana grapefruit grove on July 5, 1980.
“At least we know that she got her justice,” said one of Missy’s sisters, Melisa Jones, “and she can rest more.”
Missy had turned 18 just two months before her life was cut short, her sisters told the court. Melisa Jones said she’ll always remember seeing the pain of their mother — who didn’t live to see Missy’s murder solved — when she had to identify her daughter’s body.
Missy Jones never had the opportunity to grow up and have a family, as Nash did, her sisters said. In her 18 years, she was funny and vibrant, and she did what she could to protect her family and make them feel safe, sister Kimberly Jones said.
“You robbed Missy of the right to grow old, but you could not rob her of the impact she made,” Kimberly Jones said, addressing Nash in court. “Still, we have lived 16,631 days of wondering who she would have become if she had been allowed to stay.”
Uhler denied the defense’s request for a special-case consideration that could have allowed Nash to serve only probation based on his age and his short criminal record: He had a grand-theft conviction in Los Angeles County for which Nash was sentenced to three years of probation in 1997 but later served one year, four months in prison after his probation was revoked.
If Nash is released after serving his minimum sentence, he would serve probation for life.
Fifteen years to life “would be tantamount to punishment of the ilk that is prohibited by the California Constitution as cruel and unusual,” wrote Christopher Lucero, Nash’s attorney, in a sentencing memorandum, arguing his client would likely die in state prison.
Recalling an image of Missy Jones’ dead body, which police found with dirt kicked over her face in the grove, Uhler said Nash had no remorse for the 18-year-old’s death and continued to deny a role in her killing.
“That’s going to sit with me for a very long time,” Uhler said, also calling the killing “very heinous and very serious.”
The case went to trial twice, the first ending in a hung jury with 10 jurors favoring guilt but two telling prosecutors they believed Nash was guilty but didn’t feel confident convicting him beyond a reasonable doubt, Uhler said.
Police didn’t identify Nash — a former boyfriend of one of Missy’s sisters — as a suspect in the killing until 2020, when a detective with the Fontana Police Department reopened the case.
In 1980, investigators collected evidence, looked into leads and conducted an autopsy, but the homicide went unsolved for decades, in part because the technology didn’t exist at the time to analyze the forensic evidence police had gathered. Some of Missy Jones’ sisters believed they’d never find her killer, but Kimberly Jones continued to check in with police, hoping they’d find a new lead.
In 2020, police sent evidence collected from the original autopsy to the Riverside/San Bernardino CAL-DNA Laboratory, where they found the DNA on those samples belonged to one, then-unidentified man. Through interviews with Missy Jones’ family, investigators identified Nash as a potential suspect.
He was arrested in September 2020; prosecutors said his DNA matched the evidence collected during the autopsy.
The case is the oldest to ever be solved in Fontana, prosecutors have said.
After leaving the court, Kimberly Jones said the family will spend time together before planning a celebration to honor Missy and thank county prosecutors for their work.
“Then we’ll be done, just move on,” Kimberly Jones said. “I was 11 years old then, I’ll be 57 tomorrow.”
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