A state appeals court panel Thursday rejected a re-sentencing bid from one of two men who pleaded guilty in the slaying of a Long Beach man who was shot for the expensive “spinner” rims on his car.
The three-justice panel from the 2nd District Court of Appeal noted that a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge found beyond a reasonable doubt that Jamar Cornell Nunally was a “major participant in the carjacking and acted with reckless indifference to human life, and therefore was ineligible for resentencing.”
Nunally, now 40, had filed a petition for re-sentencing under a recently enacted state law that pertains to defendants in some murder cases.
He pleaded guilty in March 2006 to second-degree murder in connection with the May 19, 2003, killing of Ryan Groetken outside an apartment building in Hollywood, then unsuccessfully tried later to withdraw the plea. He was sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison.
Co-defendant Dane Woodson, now 39, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to 35 years to life in prison.
Woodson shot the 25-year-old victim in the back after he and Nunally confronted Groetken over the keys to his Lexus and the victim responded that he was “not going to die over this,” according to an earlier appellate court ruling in 2007 that upheld Nunally’s conviction.
The two stole the Lexus with the help of a third man, who pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and got a four-year prison term.