PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The man suspected in a Tigard double-murder in 2021 was convicted Tuesday and now faces life in prison.
The Washington County District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday that Ronald Terry Stephens, 42, was convicted for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Lacy Kitchens, 26, and her new boyfriend Frank Delgado-Falcon, 45, at her Tigard apartment.
On December 16, 2021, the attorney’s office said that Stephens drove to Kitchens’ apartment where he forced open the front door, kicked open the victim’s locked bedroom door, and shot Kitchens and Delgado-Falcon each twice in the head with a 9mm handgun.
The attorney’s office went on to say that Stephens then kicked in the door of the victims’ roommates with the intent to kill them as well, but they hid in their bedroom closet and remained unseen.
Stephens was arrested later that night at a Fred Meyer store in Sandy, Oregon along with his fiance Jaquina Shelonda Anderson, 31.
Further investigation revealed that Stephens had broken into the victim’s apartment two weeks earlier searching for Kitchens and Delgado-Falcon and had kidnapped and menaced the roommates with a gun at that time.
Stephens was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree burglary, two counts of second-degree kidnapping, two counts of unlawful use of a firearm and felon in possession of a firearm and he now faces a mandatory life sentence.
During the trial, Anderson failed to appear as a witness after being subpoenaed and the attorney’s office said that they learned that Stephens had received help from someone else while in jail to help Anderson avoid law enforcement.
A warrant is out for her arrest, but her whereabouts still remain unknown.
