Devon Epps found guilty of girlfriend Veronica Jones's murder by torture and rape

Publish date: 2024-05-05

Man who lived with girlfriend’s rotting corpse for up to six months is sentenced to prison without parole for raping, torturing and murdering her

By Anthony Bond

Published: 00:00 EST, 13 February 2013 | Updated: 04:25 EST, 13 February 2013

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Jailed: Devon Epps lived with his girlfriend's rotting corpse for six months and has now been convicted of raping and murdering her

Jailed: Devon Epps lived with his girlfriend's rotting corpse for six months and has now been convicted of raping and murdering her

A man who lived with his girlfriend's rotting corpse for six months has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Devon Epps, 37, of Stockton, California, was sentenced Monday after being convicted last month of raping, torturing and murdering her.

Epps was arrested after an apartment manager found the badly decomposed body of his girlfriend, 35-year-old Veronica Jones in a bathtub in December 2011.

At the time, Jones had been missing for six months.

Jones, a mother of 10, was bludgeoned in the head with a metal table pedestal, raped with a foreign object and stabbed 32 times.

Her body was stashed in the bathtub.

According to authorities, her face had been beaten beyond recognition.

Management at his building said Epps suffered from mental problems and he was kicked out for incidents relating to his illness.

Jurors at the trial were shown graphic crime scene photos of Jones'  ravaged and rotted corpse.

Although a missing person's report was filed at the end of June 2011, officers did not go to the apartment for another month. And even when they did, they didn't physically enter the apartment.

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Jones' brother, Isaac Zuniga, who testified in court, said: 'It's disgusting. I can't believe my sister went through that.

'I believe the law is supposed to protect victims and I don’t think my sister was being protected.

Mother Veronica Jones was bludgeoned in the head with a metal table pedestal, raped with a foreign object and stabbed 32 times

Victim: Mother Veronica Jones was bludgeoned in the head with a metal table pedestal, raped with a foreign object and stabbed 32 times

Although a missing person's report was filed at the end of June 2011, officers did not go to the apartment for another month. And even when they did, they didn't physically enter the apartment

Crime scene: Although a missing person's report was filed at the end of June 2011, officers did not go to the apartment for another month. And even when they did, they didn't physically enter the apartment

'The only thing they told me is that it’s not a crime to be missing, that they have a right not to talk to family or friends, and she was basically not missing.'

A CPS social worker also testified that Jones had weekly supervised visits with her two-year-old son, and called whenever she couldn’t make it, according to KTXL-TV.

The last they heard from her was June 2 last year.

Jurors were shown graphic crime scene photos on Friday of Jones' ravaged and rotted corpse, which was the first day of boyfriend Epps' trial

Grim: Jurors were shown graphic crime scene photos  of Jones' ravaged and rotted corpse

Her brother said: 'When suddenly stopped visiting her son, and suddenly stopped contacting friends and family, that was the cue for me that something was wrong.'

The 37-year-old Epps is due back in court today for the sanity phase of the trial.

Prosecutors say a judge ordered a mental evaluation for Epps the first time he appeared in court because of his behavior.

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