A state appellate court panel Thursday rejected a re-sentencing bid from a man convicted of the arson-murder of one of his roommates after being told to move out of a Long Beach apartment building.
The three-justice panel from the 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld the ruling of a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge who determined that Freddie Cole was ineligible for relief under a change in state law that affects defendants in some murder cases.
Cole, now 82, was convicted in August 2007 of first-degree murder and arson of an inhabited structure for the July 1, 2004, attack on his 66-year-old roommate, Frederick Holland Sr., who died four days later.
Cole — who had lived at the apartment building in the 300 block of West Ninth Street for about a year — was angry because he was being forced to move after he stopped paying his share of the rent, a prosecutor said after the verdict.
The defendant was sentenced in September 2007 to 85 years to life in state prison.
In a 2008 ruling, a three-justice panel from the appellate court upheld Cole’s conviction and turned down his claim that the trial court erred in allowing jurors to hear about his alleged involvement in other arson fires.
Cole was convicted of arson and sentenced to eight years in prison in connection with a 1989 blaze, and a 1996 arson case against him was dismissed after jurors were unable to reach a verdict, according to the appellate court panel’s ruling.
“Here, we find the circumstances of the two prior arsons and the charged arson so uncannily similar as to reflect appellant’s `signature’ on the charged offense, justifying admission of the prior misconduct on the issues of both identity and intent,” Presiding Justice Roger W. Boren wrote on behalf of the appellate court panel in its 2008 ruling.
Holland, who was one of Cole’s two roommates, was “an older, handicapped man who was trapped by the fire, unable to move quickly and imprisoned by security windows that could not be opened,” the justices noted in the 2008 ruling.
That panel noted it was likely there would have been other fatalities if a man who lived across the street had not rushed into the building to warn neighbors about the fire.
The appellate court justices called the evidence against Cole “overwhelming,” noting in the 2008 ruling that “at least four different witnesses testified that before the fire, he often threatened to burn down the building.”