Closing a nearly 24-year-old cold case, an Orange County jury on Monday convicted a man of raping and killing a pregnant newlywed in Costa Mesa, prosecutors said.
The jury found that Jason Michael Balcom, 41, sexually assaulted and then stabbed 22-year-old Malinda Gibbons in her Costa Mesa apartment in July 1988. Balcom had been serving time in Michigan for another rape when authorities linked him to the murder.
The night of the slaying, Balcom entered the apartment Gibbons shared with her new husband, Kent. She was home alone. Prosecutors contend that Balcom bound her with her husband's neckties, raped her and stabbed her in the chest.