The Murder of YC School Teacher, Mrs. Fairbanks
All Following information was written by the Appeal Democrat.
Murder hearing opens in Sutter
Appeal Democrat (Newspaper) - February 22, 1989
By LYNN PORTER A-D Staff Writer
The body of a popular Yuba City school teacher was found last September laying on a bed at her house, her head surrounded by blood, a Yuba City police officer testified today in Sutter County Municipal Court.
The testimony by Officer Mike Johnson came in the opening day of the preliminary hearing for Steven Alan Moran, 20, who is accused of killing Judith B. Fairbanks in her Second Street home Sept. 24.
The badly beaten body of Fairbanks, 48, a third/fourth grade teacher at King Avenue Elementary School, was found by her husband, Joe, about noon when he returned home from a golf game. He had last seen her alive when he left the house at 6 a.m., according to reports.
Johnson, the first officer on the scene, said he found the laundry room door to the house ajar and glass panels in the door broken. He found Fairbanks in the upstairs bedroom, he testified.
The hearing, before visiting Yuba County Municipal Court Judge James Dawson, is expected to last through tomorrow. There were no signs the home was ransacked or burglarized, police said, but Fairbanks' car was stolen and recovered the following night in south Sutter County.
Moran was arrested a few days later following his return from Minnesota, where he was picked up by authorities in that state while hitchhiking. Yuba City Police Chief Roy Harmon said Moran confessed to local authorities.
Sutter County District Attorney Carl Adams has said Moran made a statement, but would not say it was a confession.
Yuba City police said Moran was seen the night before Fairbanks' death at a party in an apartment complex in the vicinity of the Fairbanks' home and did not show for his job Saturday morning as a kitchen helper at Rico's Pizza in Yuba City.
Moran has pleaded innocent to charges of first-degree murder, two counts of sexual assault, burglary and grand theft auto. He also has denied special circumstances of committing the murder during a robbery and of torturing Mrs. Fairbanks.
He is being held without bail at Sutter County Jail. Conviction on the first-degree murder charge and the special circumstances carries with it the possibility of the death penalty.
Trial Ordered in YC Murder
Appeal Democrat Wed, Feb 23, 1989
By LYNN PORTER A-D Staff Writer
The man accused of the brutal murder of Yuba City teacher Judith Fairbanks will stand trial, a judge ruled today following testimony that Fairbanks was mutilated and brutally assaulted .
Steven Alan Moran , 20, of Yuba City will be arraigned March 13 a t 10 a.m. in Sutter County Superior Court on a first-degree murder charge, visiting Judge James Dawson ruled .
Yesterday , forensic pathologist Gwen Hall testified that Fairbanks wounds to her vaginal area. Teeth marks also were found on her leg and breast and the nipple of one breast was "amputated." the pathologist said.
The teacher's body was found in her bedroom Sept. 24 when her husband. Joe. returned to their 406 Second St. home around noon after an early morning golf game, police have said.
Hall's testimony came during the first day of a Sutter County Municipal Court preliminary hearing to determine if Moran should stand trial.
Television cameras were barred from the gruesome testimony by Dawson at the request of' Sutter County District Attorney Carl Adams. who argued "the mere fact of having it videotaped and that presented in a live camera format is going to blow it out of proportion."
Adams said his request was in the spirit of a previous gag order imposed by Judge Timothy Evans, which prohibits parties to the action from discussing the case. Extensive publicity could affect Moran's chances of getting a fair trial here, Evans has said.
"There's going to be some testimony on this case that I don't want to hear on the 11 o'clock news — live." said Adams during a court break.
Police have said Moran was seen at a party near the Fairbanks' home the night before her body was found. He was a friend of Fairbanks' daughter, Mary, and "had knowledge of the family," police said. Moran confessed to the murder in September, Yuba City Police
Chief Roy Harmon has said, but Adams would only confirm that a statement was made.
Yesterday, Hall said Fairbanks was likely dead when her breast was mutilated, but she was probably alive when her vagina was injured.
Fairbanks. 48, died from severe cranial cerebral trauma from "strong, forceful" blows by "some blunt object," Hall said. Any of the blows could have been fatal, she said. The pathologist also noted indications of strangulation around Fairbanks' neck.
In total. Hall identified 32 wounds on Fairbanks' body. Lacerations were found near her ear and on her face, cut wounds were on her hand, scratches on her neck, and wounds on her chest, said Hall.
The testimony offered the first concrete details of the murder which shocked Yuba-Sutter area residents. The grisly death prompted school officials to call in counselors and clergy to talk with students of the third/fourth grade teacher who herself was raised in the area and attended local schools.
During the hearing yesterday Yuba City police officer Mike Johnson testified he found a laundry room door at the Fairbanks' home ajar when he arrived at the murder scene. Several glass panels in the door near the lock were broken, he said.
State Department of Justice Criminalist William Robertson testified that an unbroken glass panel in that door bore the imprint of a shoe recovered from Moran.
Photographs, which Yuba City Police Dot. William Marks testified showed Fairbanks as she was found with an electrical cord around her neck, were viewed by Moran and his attorneys.
Items that could have been used to injure Fairbanks included a brass lamp found in the bedroom doorway, a bloodstained glass lamp, a bloody and broken figurine recovered from her bed, and a bloodstained steam iron found at the side of the bed wedged against the headboard, said Marks.
A portion of a taped statement allegedly made by Moran, which Harmon characterized as a confession, was played for the court. In it, Moran said he got drunk at a party at the residence of a fellow employee the nigh t before Fairbanks' body was found. The next morning, lie started hitchhiking to Minnesota, but did not tell anyone, including his sister in Yuba City, with whom he had lived since March.
"I just had a spur of the moment thought," said Moran, who added that his girlfriend had been calling him asking him to come.
Moran allegedly made a statement to and was arrested by local law enforcement personnel after he was returned to the area from Minnesota, where he was picked up by authorities while hitchhiking days after the murder.
Born in San Mateo, he said he was brought up in Half Moon Bay, moved to San Jose and then to Wisconsin before coming back to California in 1980.
Moran told investigators he had been on probation for breaking and entering in Wisconsin and had a forgery conviction as a juvenile.
Moran said he was adopted by his mother's brother, that he almost completed his senior year of high school in Wisconson, that his hobby was lifting weights and that he had never been married. He said he met a girl when she was 13 and he was 17, but he was blocked from seeing her when she went to a foster home and he became an adult.
Playing of the tapes was suddenly stopped, however, when Moran's attorney, Sutter County Public Defender Roy Van den Heuvel, conferred with Adams and agreed to stipulate that what was in the tapes was the same as in a transcript provided Dawson.
Moran also was held to answer in Superior Court on charges of grand theft auto, burglary and two counts of sexual penetration with a foreign object and allegations that he tortured Fairbanks and that he committed the murder during a burglary.
Combined, the murder charge and torture and burglary allegations carry the possibility of the death penalty.
Fairbanks' car was stolen, but recovered in south Sutter County, police have said.
Yesterday, Joe Fairbanks pointed to Moran, dressed in slacks and a jacket and chained at the waist and legs, and told the court he did not give him permission to enter his house or to take the family car.
"I did not," Fairbanks said emphatically.
Fairbanks said he had been at home with his wife the evening before her death and his daughter, Mary, had been home that evening.
The prosecution rested yesterday. Van den Heuvel co-counsel Constance M. Gutowsky did not present any evidence today.
Moran sentenced to life in killing of YC teacher
Appeal Democrat November 8, 1989
A Yuba City man was sentenced in Sutter County Superior Court yesterday to life in prison without possibility of parole after pleading guilty to killing a popular Yuba City school teacher.
Steven A. Moran, 20, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Timothy Evans. Proceedings followed an earlier plea by Moran in which he agreed to the life without parole sentence.
Moran was accused in the brutal murder of Judith Fairbanks, 48, whose body was found Sept. 24, 1988, in a bedroom in her Second Street home. Fairbanks was a teacher at King Avenue School.
In addition to first-degree murder, Moran pleaded guilty to charges of sexual assault and first degree burglary. District Attorney Carl Adams agreed not to ask for the death penalty in exchange for Moran's plea.
Allegations that the murder occurred during the burglary and that the murder involved the infliction of torture also were admitted by Moran. Additional charges of sexual assault and vehicle theft were dismissed.
Adams said earlier he might have had difficulty in proving the special circumstance allegation that the murder involved the infliction of torture. He said it would have been difficult to get the jury to impose the death penalty if torture couldn't be proven.
There still is no known motive for the slaying, Adams said.
Moran allegedly left a party at a McRae Way apartment complex early on Saturday, Sept. 24, 1988, and broke into the Fairbanks' home sometime later. He reportedly was an acquaintance of the Fairbanks' daughter.
After going upstairs, Moran allegedly found Fairbanks asleep in bed and hit her on the head with a lamp and iron. He allegedly sexually attacked Fairbanks, then stole car keys and $5 from her purse and took a car from the garage behind the house.
Moran was later picked up by Minnesota authorities while hitchhiking.
Steven Alan Moran is currently serving a life sentence at Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad. He has been there since 11/17/1989. The website states, "The inmate shown above is serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole and is, therefore, not eligible for parole consideration at this time."
Appeal Democrat
Murder hearing opens in Sutter
Appeal Democrat (Newspaper) - February 22, 1989
By LYNN PORTER A-D Staff Writer
The body of a popular Yuba City school teacher was found last September laying on a bed at her house, her head surrounded by blood, a Yuba City police officer testified today in Sutter County Municipal Court.
The testimony by Officer Mike Johnson came in the opening day of the preliminary hearing for Steven Alan Moran, 20, who is accused of killing Judith B. Fairbanks in her Second Street home Sept. 24.
The badly beaten body of Fairbanks, 48, a third/fourth grade teacher at King Avenue Elementary School, was found by her husband, Joe, about noon when he returned home from a golf game. He had last seen her alive when he left the house at 6 a.m., according to reports.
Johnson, the first officer on the scene, said he found the laundry room door to the house ajar and glass panels in the door broken. He found Fairbanks in the upstairs bedroom, he testified.
The hearing, before visiting Yuba County Municipal Court Judge James Dawson, is expected to last through tomorrow. There were no signs the home was ransacked or burglarized, police said, but Fairbanks' car was stolen and recovered the following night in south Sutter County.
Moran was arrested a few days later following his return from Minnesota, where he was picked up by authorities in that state while hitchhiking. Yuba City Police Chief Roy Harmon said Moran confessed to local authorities.
Sutter County District Attorney Carl Adams has said Moran made a statement, but would not say it was a confession.
Yuba City police said Moran was seen the night before Fairbanks' death at a party in an apartment complex in the vicinity of the Fairbanks' home and did not show for his job Saturday morning as a kitchen helper at Rico's Pizza in Yuba City.
Moran has pleaded innocent to charges of first-degree murder, two counts of sexual assault, burglary and grand theft auto. He also has denied special circumstances of committing the murder during a robbery and of torturing Mrs. Fairbanks.
He is being held without bail at Sutter County Jail. Conviction on the first-degree murder charge and the special circumstances carries with it the possibility of the death penalty.
 |
A-D photo by David Parker Steven Moran (center) waited for testimony to begin this morning with attorneys Connie Gutowski and Roy Van den Heuvel. |
Trial Ordered in YC Murder
Appeal Democrat Wed, Feb 23, 1989
By LYNN PORTER A-D Staff Writer
The man accused of the brutal murder of Yuba City teacher Judith Fairbanks will stand trial, a judge ruled today following testimony that Fairbanks was mutilated and brutally assaulted .
Steven Alan Moran , 20, of Yuba City will be arraigned March 13 a t 10 a.m. in Sutter County Superior Court on a first-degree murder charge, visiting Judge James Dawson ruled .
Yesterday , forensic pathologist Gwen Hall testified that Fairbanks wounds to her vaginal area. Teeth marks also were found on her leg and breast and the nipple of one breast was "amputated." the pathologist said.
The teacher's body was found in her bedroom Sept. 24 when her husband. Joe. returned to their 406 Second St. home around noon after an early morning golf game, police have said.
 |
| The Fairbanks Home on 2nd St. |
Hall's testimony came during the first day of a Sutter County Municipal Court preliminary hearing to determine if Moran should stand trial.
Television cameras were barred from the gruesome testimony by Dawson at the request of' Sutter County District Attorney Carl Adams. who argued "the mere fact of having it videotaped and that presented in a live camera format is going to blow it out of proportion."
Adams said his request was in the spirit of a previous gag order imposed by Judge Timothy Evans, which prohibits parties to the action from discussing the case. Extensive publicity could affect Moran's chances of getting a fair trial here, Evans has said.
"There's going to be some testimony on this case that I don't want to hear on the 11 o'clock news — live." said Adams during a court break.
Police have said Moran was seen at a party near the Fairbanks' home the night before her body was found. He was a friend of Fairbanks' daughter, Mary, and "had knowledge of the family," police said. Moran confessed to the murder in September, Yuba City Police
Chief Roy Harmon has said, but Adams would only confirm that a statement was made.
Yesterday, Hall said Fairbanks was likely dead when her breast was mutilated, but she was probably alive when her vagina was injured.
Fairbanks. 48, died from severe cranial cerebral trauma from "strong, forceful" blows by "some blunt object," Hall said. Any of the blows could have been fatal, she said. The pathologist also noted indications of strangulation around Fairbanks' neck.
In total. Hall identified 32 wounds on Fairbanks' body. Lacerations were found near her ear and on her face, cut wounds were on her hand, scratches on her neck, and wounds on her chest, said Hall.
The testimony offered the first concrete details of the murder which shocked Yuba-Sutter area residents. The grisly death prompted school officials to call in counselors and clergy to talk with students of the third/fourth grade teacher who herself was raised in the area and attended local schools.
During the hearing yesterday Yuba City police officer Mike Johnson testified he found a laundry room door at the Fairbanks' home ajar when he arrived at the murder scene. Several glass panels in the door near the lock were broken, he said.
State Department of Justice Criminalist William Robertson testified that an unbroken glass panel in that door bore the imprint of a shoe recovered from Moran.
Photographs, which Yuba City Police Dot. William Marks testified showed Fairbanks as she was found with an electrical cord around her neck, were viewed by Moran and his attorneys.
Items that could have been used to injure Fairbanks included a brass lamp found in the bedroom doorway, a bloodstained glass lamp, a bloody and broken figurine recovered from her bed, and a bloodstained steam iron found at the side of the bed wedged against the headboard, said Marks.
A portion of a taped statement allegedly made by Moran, which Harmon characterized as a confession, was played for the court. In it, Moran said he got drunk at a party at the residence of a fellow employee the nigh t before Fairbanks' body was found. The next morning, lie started hitchhiking to Minnesota, but did not tell anyone, including his sister in Yuba City, with whom he had lived since March.
"I just had a spur of the moment thought," said Moran, who added that his girlfriend had been calling him asking him to come.
Moran allegedly made a statement to and was arrested by local law enforcement personnel after he was returned to the area from Minnesota, where he was picked up by authorities while hitchhiking days after the murder.
Born in San Mateo, he said he was brought up in Half Moon Bay, moved to San Jose and then to Wisconsin before coming back to California in 1980.
Moran told investigators he had been on probation for breaking and entering in Wisconsin and had a forgery conviction as a juvenile.
Moran said he was adopted by his mother's brother, that he almost completed his senior year of high school in Wisconson, that his hobby was lifting weights and that he had never been married. He said he met a girl when she was 13 and he was 17, but he was blocked from seeing her when she went to a foster home and he became an adult.
Playing of the tapes was suddenly stopped, however, when Moran's attorney, Sutter County Public Defender Roy Van den Heuvel, conferred with Adams and agreed to stipulate that what was in the tapes was the same as in a transcript provided Dawson.
Moran also was held to answer in Superior Court on charges of grand theft auto, burglary and two counts of sexual penetration with a foreign object and allegations that he tortured Fairbanks and that he committed the murder during a burglary.
Combined, the murder charge and torture and burglary allegations carry the possibility of the death penalty.
Fairbanks' car was stolen, but recovered in south Sutter County, police have said.
Yesterday, Joe Fairbanks pointed to Moran, dressed in slacks and a jacket and chained at the waist and legs, and told the court he did not give him permission to enter his house or to take the family car.
"I did not," Fairbanks said emphatically.
Fairbanks said he had been at home with his wife the evening before her death and his daughter, Mary, had been home that evening.
The prosecution rested yesterday. Van den Heuvel co-counsel Constance M. Gutowsky did not present any evidence today.
Moran sentenced to life in killing of YC teacher
Appeal Democrat November 8, 1989
A Yuba City man was sentenced in Sutter County Superior Court yesterday to life in prison without possibility of parole after pleading guilty to killing a popular Yuba City school teacher.
Steven A. Moran, 20, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Timothy Evans. Proceedings followed an earlier plea by Moran in which he agreed to the life without parole sentence.
Moran was accused in the brutal murder of Judith Fairbanks, 48, whose body was found Sept. 24, 1988, in a bedroom in her Second Street home. Fairbanks was a teacher at King Avenue School.
In addition to first-degree murder, Moran pleaded guilty to charges of sexual assault and first degree burglary. District Attorney Carl Adams agreed not to ask for the death penalty in exchange for Moran's plea.
Allegations that the murder occurred during the burglary and that the murder involved the infliction of torture also were admitted by Moran. Additional charges of sexual assault and vehicle theft were dismissed.
Adams said earlier he might have had difficulty in proving the special circumstance allegation that the murder involved the infliction of torture. He said it would have been difficult to get the jury to impose the death penalty if torture couldn't be proven.
There still is no known motive for the slaying, Adams said.
Moran allegedly left a party at a McRae Way apartment complex early on Saturday, Sept. 24, 1988, and broke into the Fairbanks' home sometime later. He reportedly was an acquaintance of the Fairbanks' daughter.
After going upstairs, Moran allegedly found Fairbanks asleep in bed and hit her on the head with a lamp and iron. He allegedly sexually attacked Fairbanks, then stole car keys and $5 from her purse and took a car from the garage behind the house.
Moran was later picked up by Minnesota authorities while hitchhiking.
SCHOLARSHIP MONEY GATHERS INTEREST
2002 funds to Y.C. Unified never awarded
A-D 2010
By Ryan McCarthy
2002 funds to Y.C. Unified never awarded
A-D 2010
By Ryan McCarthy
Steven Alan Moran is currently serving a life sentence at Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad. He has been there since 11/17/1989. The website states, "The inmate shown above is serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole and is, therefore, not eligible for parole consideration at this time."
Sources
Appeal Democrat
https://marysvilleappealdemocrat.newspaperarchive.com/marysville-yuba-city-appeal-democrat/1989-02-22/page-6/
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/68139821/
https://marysvilleappealdemocrat.newspaperarchive.com/appeal-democrat/2010-03-25/
I vaguely remember when this happened. My morbid sense of curiosity wonders if her spirit is still in the home. 😨😱
ReplyDeleteTrust and believe something does I lived in that house from 96 til 2001
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