A 61-year-old murderer already serving a life sentence in prison will have to wait at least two more days to receive his sentence for the murder of a gas station attendant 36 years ago.
Terry Moses, pleaded guilty on Jan. 7, 2016, to kidnapping and killing gas station attendant Leslie Long on Dec. 3, 1978.
He was originally scheduled to be sentenced on March 15, 2016, for her murder. Sixteen months later, he is still waiting to be sentenced for that crime.
Waiting, however, is a relative term for Moses who is already behind bars, serving a 25 years-to-life sentence inside Soledad State Prison.
On Monday, he appeared in an Antelope Valley Courthouse at the jury trial of the man also accused of killing Long in 1978 – Neal Antoine Matthews, now 59.
Moses was told to return to court Wednesday to finally be sentenced.
Detectives working on the cold case murder of Leslie Long arrested Moses in May 2015 after DNA evidence linked him to the crime.
As part of his plea deal with prosecutors hammered out early last year, Moses admitted the special circumstance allegations of murder during a robbery, murder during a kidnapping and murder during a rape.
Moses also pleaded guilty to the murders of Carlton Goodwin and Michael Fuqua, who were slain Aug. 22, 1976; and to the attempted murder of Kenney Guevara on Dec. 7, 1996.
He faces three terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole, Deputy District Attorney Tannaz Mokayef of the Major Crimes Division, said last year.
Moses was one of two men accused of killing Leslie Long. Matthews, now 59, remains a co-accused in the case.
Long was working a night shift at a Palmdale gas station on Dec. 3, 1978, when she was robbed and kidnapped.
Authorities were notified and began searching for Long. Three days later, her body was found off the Highway 14 Freeway in Acton. Investigators believe Long was shot and killed at that location.
DNA evidence ties both Moses and Matthews to the murder, Mokayef said in January 2016.
Prosecutors are expected to decide later whether to seek the death penalty against Matthews, the prosecutor said.
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