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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A state appeals court panel Monday denied a bid for re-sentencing by one of two men convicted of the gang-related killings of a 17-year-old boy and an 18-year-old man who were mistakenly targeted in south Whittier more than two decades ago.
The three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal found that "ample circumstantial evidence" supported a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge's findings that Alejandro Rey Delaloza was a "direct aider and abettor of the murders" and that he acted with knowledge of co- defendant Richard Penunuri's "unlawful intent and with an intent to assist Penunuri in accomplishing his goal."
Delaloza is serving a life prison term without the possibility of parole for the Oct. 24, 1997, killings of Bryan Molina, 17, and Mike Murillo, 18, who were shot to death in what authorities believed was a case of mistaken identity.
Penunuri -- who was sentenced to death -- was also convicted of ordering the murder of Jaime Castillo, whom he believed would tell police about the slayings.
In a 6-1 ruling in 2018, the California Supreme Court rejected Penunuri's contention that there was insufficient evidence to prove that he killed Molina and Murillo, finding that the defendant's "guilt is further confirmed by his instructions to prevent" Castillo from testifying against him.
Castillo was shot once in the head, execution-style, and his body was dumped along Highway 39 in the Angeles National Forest, north of Azusa, in January 1998.
Then-Associate Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuellar concurred with upholding Penunuri's conviction, but wrote in a dissenting opinion in 2018 that he would reverse the jury's penalty phase verdict that resulted in Penunuri's death sentence, along with a firearm use enhancement.
Cuellar noted in his dissenting opinion that the trial court erroneously allowed Delaloza to shift blame for the killings to Penunuri during a police interrogation without allowing cross-examination of Delaloza, who did not testify during trial.
While on death row in October 2016, Penunuri used a prison-made weapon to slash a correctional officer in the arm as he was being secured in a shower stall at San Quentin State Prison, state prison officials said.
Two other gang members, Arthur Bermudez and Joseph Michael Castro Jr., were also convicted of Castillo's killing and were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A state appeals court panel upheld their convictions in 2003, and the California Supreme Court subsequently refused to review their case.