{"id":70853,"date":"2016-03-18T08:34:11","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T15:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=70853"},"modified":"2019-02-07T14:18:32","modified_gmt":"2019-02-07T22:18:32","slug":"man-pleads-not-guilty-in-1978-murder-of-gas-station-clerk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2016\/03\/18\/man-pleads-not-guilty-in-1978-murder-of-gas-station-clerk\/","title":{"rendered":"Man pleads not guilty in 1978 murder of gas station clerk"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Leslie
Leslie Long (Photo courtesy Crimestoppers)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LANCASTER – A man pleaded not guilty Thursday in connection with the abduction and killing of a woman who was working the night shift at a Palmdale gas station more than three decades ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

Neal Antoine Matthews<\/b>, 59, is charged in the Dec. 3, 1978, attack on <\/span>Leslie Long<\/b>, who was working a Sunday night shift at what was then a Chevron gas station on the corner of Palmdale Boulevard and Division Street.<\/span><\/p>\n

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, about eight miles from the gas station. The 20-year-old mother of three had been sexually assaulted and shot, authorities said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegations of murder during a robbery, murder during a kidnapping and murder during a rape. <\/span><\/p>\n

Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek the death penalty against Matthews.<\/span><\/p>\n

Co-defendant <\/span>Terry Moses<\/b>, 60, pleaded guilty in January<\/a> to Long’s murder, along with the Aug. 22, 1976, murders of Carlton Goodwin and Michael Fuqua and an attempted murder in December 1996. <\/span><\/p>\n

Moses — who was serving a 25-year-to-life state prison sentence on an unrelated case when he and Matthews were charged last year — is facing three life prison terms without the possibility of parole.<\/span><\/p>\n

DNA evidence ties both men to Long’s killing, according to Deputy District Attorney Tannaz Mokayef.<\/span><\/p>\n

Previous related story:<\/span><\/p>\n

Man pleads to murdering Palmdale woman in decades-old case<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Pair charged with decades-old murder of woman in Palmdale<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Reward over murdered Palmdale woman cold case extended<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Palmdale murder to be featured on Crime Stoppers Sunday<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

$26,000 reward over murdered Palmdale woman cold-case<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LANCASTER – A man pleaded not guilty Thursday in connection with the abduction and killing of a woman who was working the night shift at a Palmdale gas station more than three decades ago. Neal Antoine Matthews, 59, is charged in the Dec. 3, 1978, attack on Leslie Long, who was working a Sunday night […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1492,719],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70853"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}