A 57-year-old Yorba Linda man was sentenced Thursday to 46 years to life in prison for stabbing to death a man he falsely believed had raped a female friend.
A jury earlier this year found Effrum Maland Burnett guilty of second-degree murder for the July 18, 2023 killing of 50-year-old Toye Mims Jones during a fight outside an Anaheim sober living home. As a result of previous “strikes” related to convictions for violent crimes several decades ago, Burnett’s prison sentence was effectively tripled.
The case grew out of a woman lying to Burnett; she told him Jones raped her when she visited the sober living home where he lived, and that Jones stole her pickup truck. In reality, the woman wanted to take a truck belonging to someone else and lied to Burnett so he would help her get it, according to testimony.
Burnett and another man went with the woman to the home where Jones was living in the 9500 block of Canton Avenue. Jones — angered by the false rape accusations — confronted the group and either struck the woman or was about to strike her. Burnett intervened, hitting Jones, and Jones retreated into the sober living home.
Minutes later, Jones came back out of the home, and he and Burnett walked down the street. During a second fight that lasted less than a minute, Burnett stabbed Jones five times, killing him.
Jurors apparently rejected the argument by Burnett’s attorney, Lee Stonum, that Burnett was acting in self-defense.
Burnett, in a brief statement during his sentencing hearing that was often difficult to understand due to his quiet voice, asked for forgiveness.
“What happened shouldn’t have happened,” Burnett told the judge.
During Thursday’s sentencing hearing, the defense attorney unsuccessfully urged Orange County Superior Court Judge Sheila Hanson to ignore Burnett’s previous violent crime convictions while determining his current sentence, effectively asking her to “strike the strikes” that called for him to spend far more time behind bars under state law.
A lower 15 years to life sentence — for a second degree murder conviction without previous strikes — would have given Burnett the chance to one day seek parole, the defense attorney argued.
Judge Hanson acknowledged Burnett’s life-long struggles with drugs and alcohol, mental issues and childhood exposure to abuse. The judge also noted that Burnett had been lied to by the woman who claimed to have been raped by Jones. But the judge told Burnett that “Ultimately you made the decision to use a knife in a fist fight …
“We shouldn’t be here today, but yet we are,” Hanson told Burnett. “Mr. Toye Jones should be alive, you should be on the road to recovery.”
Family members and friends of both Burnett and Jones described the two men’s struggles with sobriety, and the support those around them tried to give them.
Ken Cheatham, who met Burnett through recovery programs, described Burnett as a “kind, gentle, fun-loving man.” Burnett’s wife, Emily, said he had a “big-heart and work-ethic” adding that he had a weakness for “trying to be helpful to people who didn’t deserve it.” Both alleged that Burnett has been overmedicated in the jail, which they argued made it difficult for him to explain himself at trial.
Stonum, a veteran defense attorney, told Judge Hanson that he had “never seen someone with the level of remorse (Burnett) had.”
But Deputy District Attorney David Porter reminded the judge that Jones’ killing was “serious and violent.” Porter also noted that Burnett was allowed to enter a diversion program when faced with burglary and robbery charges in 2018, avoiding a prison stretch that the prosecutor noted would have prevented Burnett from being free to take part in the violent confrontation with Jones.
Jones’ family members said he was struggling to turn his life around at the time of his death. His mother, Antoinette Washington, showed the judge the last photo she had of her son, taken during a church service he had asked to attend with her.
“My son, I loved him no matter what, but I did not expect for him to be murdered of all things,” Washington said. “I learned to accept Toye for who he was, not who I wanted him to be.”
Despite their loss, the members of Jones’ family who spoke during the sentencing said they hoped Burnett found help in prison and that he wouldn’t spend the rest of his life behind bars.
“It really hurts, and after today I think there are going to be two families who lost people,” Anthony Lopez, Jones’ son, told the judge.
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