Three years after fatal stabbing in Carmichael, man learns prison sentence for murder

A man convicted of murdering another man in Carmichael was sentenced Friday to more than two decades in prison, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

Stephen Jackson was arrested in 2019 following the killing of Jaitu Keys.

On the night of Nov. 9 that year, prosecutors said, he had attended a high school football game with a female friend. After the game, Jackson invited the woman into his house. When she declined, he placed a GPS tracking device in the trunk of her car and followed her to a location in Carmichael where she met Keys, the District Attorney’s Office said.

As Keys sat in the front seat to talk to the woman, Jackson shattered the passenger window and stabbed Keys four times. The woman drove Keys to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

A jury in March convicted Jackson of first-degree murder and found true the special allegation that Jackson personally used a knife in the commission of the crime, according to court records. He was sentenced to 26 years in prison by Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Stephen Acquisto.