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Man convicted of 1978 killing of Palmdale gas station clerk

by City News Service • September 22, 2017

Leslie Long (Photo courtesy Crimestoppers)

LANCASTER  – A man was convicted Thursday of the 1978 killing of a mother of three who worked the night shift at a Palmdale gas station.

The Lancaster jury deliberated about two hours before finding Neal Antoine Matthews, 60, guilty of first-degree murder for the December 1978 killing of 20-year-old Leslie Long, according to Deputy District Attorney Tannaz Mokayef.

Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegations of murder during a robbery, murder during a kidnapping and murder during a rape.

The panel was the second to hear the case against Matthews. The first jury deadlocked 11-1 in favor of guilt, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Matthews is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole. Sentencing is set for Nov. 6.

Co-defendant Terry Moses — who was charged along with Matthews — pleaded guilty last year to Long’s killing, along with the Aug. 22, 1976, murders of Carlton Goodwin and Michael Fuqua and an attempted murder in December 1996. Moses is set to be sentenced Oct. 18 and is facing three life prison terms without the possibility of parole.

Moses was serving a 25-year-to-life state prison sentence on an unrelated case when the two men were charged in May 2015 in the attack on Long, who was working the night shift on Dec. 3, 1978, at what was then a Chevron gas station on the corner of Palmdale Boulevard and Division Street.

Authorities said robbers took money from a floor safe and kidnapped Leslie Long at gunpoint.

Long’s body was found three days later at the base of a small hill just off the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway at Soledad Canyon Road in Acton, eight miles from the gas station. She had been sexually assaulted and shot multiple times.

DNA evidence tied both men to the killing, authorities said.

Filed Under: Crime/ Safety

5 comments for "Man convicted of 1978 killing of Palmdale gas station clerk"

  1. Yamilet B. says

    September 28, 2017 at 1:25 pm

    May the Long family have peace and comfort that now they have gotten Justice for their beloved Leslie. And may they regain strength knowing that soon we will be with our loved ones in the “new world ” that we have lost. (2 Pt. 3:13)

  2. Wendy GB says

    September 28, 2017 at 1:18 pm

    What an insufferable pain The Long family must have been going through all these years that they have not been able to convict the murders till now! I can only imagine that one person that deadlocked the trail the 1st time how they must have felt to come to find out that there’s DNA evidence that tied them to this horrible tragedy! Amen for their conviction and that now the family may have some justice and peace. 1 King 8:32 “May you then hear from the heavens and act and judge your servants by pronouncing the wicked one guilty and bringing what he did on his own head, and by pronouncing the righteous one innocent and rewarding him according to his own righteousness.”

  3. Daisy Kern says

    September 26, 2017 at 9:27 am

    Do a crime in Cali.you will go down..TY to all LE who participated in the apprehension .To the DA who got the conviction.To the jury who found the charge to be true.
    May he Family be present. The Sentencing,with a Victim impact statement.

  4. Justice is Just Us says

    September 22, 2017 at 10:35 am

    Thank God. It’s too bad the monsters didn’t receive the Death Penalty.

    • PoliticalMalpractice AKA Ignoramus says

      September 25, 2017 at 12:24 pm

      Amen, brother or sister.

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