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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A state appeals court panel has ordered new court proceedings for a woman who contends she should be re-sentenced in connection with the stabbing death of a Pasadena barbershop owner during a robbery – a crime for which her then-boyfriend was also convicted.
The three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal noted that Sabrina Octavia King is entitled to a hearing on whether she established a ``prima facie showing of entitlement to relief'' as a result of a recent change in state law that affects some defendants who were convicted of manslaughter.
The latest ruling, issued Monday, comes nearly six months after a state appeals court panel had agreed with a judge's findings that she was ineligible for re-sentencing under a change in state law that affects defendants in some murder cases. However, state law was changed again to allow some defendants convicted of manslaughter or attempted murder to seek re-sentencing.
King, now 29, was sentenced in December 2014 to 21 years in state prison in connection with the Sept. 20, 2011, killing of King King, to whom she was not related.
Her former boyfriend, Davon Westley Moore, was convicted of first-degree murder for the Sept. 20, 2011, killing of King King. Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegations of murder during the commission of a robbery and murder during the commission of a burglary.
Moore, now 33, is serving a life prison term without the possibility of parole.
In a December 2015 ruling in which Moore's conviction was upheld, a state appeals court panel noted that Moore and King decided to rob the victim the same day she had met the barbershop owner and that Moore carried a knife with him ``in case it gets crazy.''
The 43-year-old victim was stabbed three times in the neck inside his barbershop, and a laptop computer was taken. He was found dead in the early morning hours of Sept. 21, 2011, near the barbershop, where he lived as well as worked. He collapsed after trying to get help.
Moore and King left bloody footprints leading away from the barbershop and into an alley in the direction of a friend's house, where they were subsequently arrested, according to the 2015 appellate court ruling.