On a Thursday just before noon in Tigard, Oregon, the life of 26-year-old Lacy Kitchens, a White female, was brought to a violent and tragic end. On December 16, 2021, officers were called to an apartment complex near the intersection of Southwest Greenburg Road and 95th Avenue following reports of a shooting. Inside, they discovered the bodies of Lacy and her 45-year-old boyfriend, Frank Falcon-Delgado; both had been shot and were already deceased.
The investigation soon revealed a
history of violence that preceded the fatal encounter. The suspect was identified as Ronald Terry Stephens, age 42, of Portland, who was Lacy's ex-boyfriend. Two weeks before the murders, Stephens had broken into the same apartment, searching for Lacy and her new boyfriend. During that earlier incident, he had kidnapped and threatened her roommates with a gun.
On the day of the killings, Stephens returned to the apartment, forced his way through the front door, and kicked in Lacy's locked bedroom door. Inside, he found Lacy with Frank and shot them both twice in the head with a 9mm handgun, killing them instantly. After the shooting, Stephens then kicked in the bedroom door of Lacy's roommates with the intent to kill them as well, but they managed to hide in a closet and were not seen.
Stephens fled the scene but was apprehended later that same night at a Fred Meyer store in Sandy, Oregon, with his fiancée, Jaquina Shelonda Anderson. Evidence tying him to the crime included Lacy's blood on his shoe and video surveillance that placed him at the apartment complex. In May 2023, a Washington County jury convicted Ronald Terry Stephens on multiple counts, including two counts of first-degree murder. He was subsequently sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
