Mother, Son She Shot Laid to Rest

A pastor speaking at funeral services for a Reseda mother who shot her three children to death before killing herself urged her family and friends to “judge not, lest ye be judged.”

Norman Rupert told nearly 150 mourners at the funeral for Roxanne Jones and her son, Jeremiah, 7, to have “love, mercy, compassion and understanding” for Jones, who--despondent over her struggle to provide for her children as a single mother--killed them in their beds last week and then committed suicide.

“If Jesus were here, I don’t believe he would be condemning in any manner,” Rupert said, without directly mentioning the murder-suicide.

Family members say Jones was deeply depressed over her financial situation and her efforts to support her children. Her brother-in-law, Steve Jones, said she was “barely making ends meet, struggling to keep a roof over their heads and clothes on their back.”

He called her “a warm, loving, caring individual” who lost her will to live.

But, he said, “her love for her children was so strong” that she could not bear the thought of being separated from them.

Jones’ two teen-age daughters, Brandi and Leticia Fernandez, 15 and 13, were buried Wednesday in plots adjacent to their mother and half-brother at Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth.