A man who fatally stabbed his counselor at a Job Corps facility in Hollywood was sentenced Tuesday to 26 years to life in state prison.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Craig Mitchell denied the defense’s request for a new trial for Freddy Leyva, who was found guilty Dec. 15 of first- degree murder for the March 14, 2012, killing of Dwayne Alexander in an office in the 1200 block of North Lodi Place.
Leyva, 25, was a student in the program and living at the facility at the time.
Leyva attacked Alexander without provocation, according to the prosecution. Three other students came to the counselor’s aid and subdued Leyva, but they were unable to save Alexander, who suffered 29 stab and cut wounds — five of them fatal.
Deputy District Attorney Robert Britton told jurors that Leyva was “stewing for days and weeks on end” and resented being counseled by Alexander.
Defense attorney Tomas Requejo countered that the case came down to Leyva’s mental state in arguing that his client was not guilty of first- or second-degree murder.
Leyva testified that Alexander grabbed his genitals, laid on the bed in his dormitory room and hugged and kissed him.
Britton countered there was “absolutely nothing” outside of Leyva’s testimony to support his account, saying that the defendant was “trying to drag his (victim’s name) through the mud.”
“This guy literally cannot tell the truth if his life depends on it,” Britton said, telling jurors that Leyva was “trying to pull the wool over your eyes by selectively remembering and forgetting things.”
Leyva testified that he had lain awake the night before the killing, worrying about Alexander’s latest advance in which, according to the defendant, the counselor bear-hugged and kissed him. But Leyva said he couldn’t remember anything about what happened in the office Alexander was sharing with two co- workers the day of the killing.
The judge initially allowed jurors to hear about Leyva’s testimony last year, in which he said he stabbed Alexander because he thought he was “coming for me.”
But the judge later ruled that part of the testimony was inadmissible and told jurors to disregard it. He also said outside the jury’s presence that jurors would not be instructed on voluntary manslaughter.
The jury foreman said the panel “split” on whether Leyva was telling the truth about the alleged sexual advances. But in the end, he said, it didn’t matter, because “there was never an option” to consider self-defense under the jury instructions.
In 2013, a previous jury deadlocked in Leyva’s case, prompting a mistrial. Ten of those original jurors favored a murder conviction, and two opted for voluntary manslaughter.
But Leyva changed his testimony this time, Britton said, eliminating the possibility of a manslaughter verdict. The prosecutor called it “a clean-cut first-degree murder case.”
— City News Service