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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A state appellate court panel Tuesday rejected a bid for re-sentencing by a Pomona woman who pleaded no contest to fatally stabbing her 58-year-old father.
The three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal found that a judge did not err in denying Gardenia Guzman's petition for re- sentencing under a new state law, noting that she was the "actual killer" of Jaime Hernandez Guzman.
Officers found the man with a single stab wound to his upper body when they responded Jan. 25, 2019, to an unknown disturbance in the 200 block of West Grove Avenue, Pomona police said shortly after the crime was discovered.
The victim died while in the home, according to police.
Following a lengthy probe, homicide investigators identified Gardenia Guzman as the suspected stabber. Investigators believed that Guzman and her father had been arguing and that she grabbed a knife at one point and stabbed him.
An arrest warrant was issued for her, but her whereabouts had been unknown until May 2019, when members of the Major Crimes Task Force contacted a group of people, including Gardenia Guzman, at the corner of Mission Blvd and Reservoir Street.
Guzman, now 33, was initially charged with murder and was sentenced in September 2020 to 17 years in state prison after she pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and admitted she had a prior serious or violent felony conviction.