A state appeals court panel Friday upheld a killer’s conviction for voluntary manslaughter for stabbing a woman during a dispute over a parking space at a Santa Fe Springs swap meet.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected
the defense’s contention there was insufficient evidence that Reggie Cervantes’ conduct caused Elizabeth Yanez’s Oct. 17, 2014, death, along with a claim that jurors should have been instructed on the lesser offense of attempted voluntary manslaughter.
A jury in Norwalk acquitted Cervantes of first-degree murder and second-degree murder involving the woman’s stabbing, along with a charge of assault with a deadly weapon involving her adult son.
A forensic pathologist testified the cause of Yanez’s death was an acute cardiac event during an assault, and that the stabbing was a substantial factor in the 43-year-old woman’s death, the justices noted in a 16-page ruling.
The appellate court panel found that the doctor’s testimony “constituted substantial evidence from which the jury could conclude that defendant’s act was a substantial factor in causing Yanez’s death.”
A physical altercation ensued between Cervantes and Yanez’s adult son, and Cervantes stabbed Yanez while she was involved in a physical altercation with his girlfriend, Deputy District Attorney Andrea Mader said after the verdict.
Yanez was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where she died.
Cervantes was arrested a day later. He was convicted in August 2015 and sentenced in January 2016 to 13 years in state prison.