A state appeals court has denied a parolee’s latest bid for re-sentencing in connection with a methamphetamine lab explosion in Van Nuys that fatally injured a woman more than two decades ago.
In its ruling Thursday, the three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal agreed with a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge’s decision that Daniel Schaefer is not eligible for re-sentencing under new state law that affects the convictions of defendants in some murder cases.
Schaefer, now 58, was convicted of second-degree murder for the July 16, 2001, explosion in which Monica Reynoso suffered third-degree burns over 62% of her body. She died a month later as a result of sepsis and the delayed effects of the burns, according to the appellate court panel’s ruling.
Schaefer was also burned over 70% of his body, the justices noted.
“That Schaefer knew he was literally playing with fire by manufacturing methamphetamine was well supported by the evidence,” the panel wrote, noting that a flash fire had erupted when he was cleaning methamphetamine at another woman’s apartment in Studio City less than a month earlier. “Without a doubt this put him on notice, if he did not know before, that processing methamphetamine was dangerous business.”
The panel also noted that Schaefer brought a fire extinguisher with him to Reynoso’s apartment, and that he wrote in a letter to the court in connection with his first re-sentencing petition that he did not think lightning would strike twice.
“The evidence is substantial that Schaefer well knew the dangers of manufacturing methamphetamine but nevertheless persisted,” the appellate court justices added. “His testimony only confirms the obvious, i.e., that he did not stop this dangerous venture when he well knew what could happen. When it did happen, Reynoso was seriously burned and died.”
Schafer is serving a 15-year-to-life term for the murder charge, along with 21 years and four months in prison on other drug and gun-related counts.