The California Supreme Court refused Wednesday to review the case against two former Whittier residents convicted of the January 2009 murder of a San Pedro woman who was found shot to death in her car.
Daniel Keith Martinez and Raul Tiscareno were convicted of first-degree murder for the Jan. 30, 2009, killing of Ginie Samayoa, whose body was found in the driver’s seat of her red Toyota Tercel in an alley behind a San Pedro diner.
Another former Whittier resident, Michael Bonfiglio, was tried separately and was also convicted.
Authorities said the 27-year-old woman had been engaged in identity theft, and her laptop computer, which contained credit card information, was stolen from her during the attack, which occurred several blocks from her apartment.
In a March 24 ruling that upheld the convictions of Martinez and Tiscareno, an appellate court panel noted that there was “substantial evidence that the three men planned to rob Samayoa of her laptop computer and to kill her, eliminating the only witness to their robbery.”
The woman’s laptop was found on a bed in Tiscareno’s apartment, the appellate court justices noted.
The appellate panel rejected the defense’s contention that there was insufficient evidence to support Tiscareno’s conviction and the special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of a robbery against Martinez.
In a ruling last October, a state appellate court panel upheld Bonfiglio’s conviction. The California Supreme Court refused to review the case against him in January.
All three men are serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.
— City News Service