A state appeals court panel Thursday upheld a man’s first-degree murder conviction for shooting his girlfriend in the back near the Long Beach courthouse.
In a 19-page ruling, the three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense’s contention that Superior Court Judge Judith L. Meyer abused her discretion in refusing to strike a gun enhancement that added 25 years to life to John Jay Osborne’s sentence.
The panel also rejected the defense’s claim that jurors should not have heard that police recovered firearms and firearm-related paraphernalia from his bedroom that were not used in the July 11, 2019, killing of Nancy Romero.
The appellate court justices found that “the evidence of Osborne’s guilt was overwhelming.”
Osborne, now 37, is serving a 50-year-to-life state prison term for the killing of the 46-year-old Long Beach woman, who was found with a gunshot wound to her chest on a sidewalk in the 300 block of Magnolia Avenue.
She was taken to an area hospital, where she died soon afterward.
Osborne testified that he blindly fired a shot behind him in Romero’s direction after the two had argued for about 30 minutes and that she told him she was going to leave him, saying that she said she was “glad she didn’t have [his][expletive} baby” in reference to an earlier miscarriage, according to the appellate court panel’s ruling.
He surrendered to Long Beach police five days later and has remained behind bars since then.