A state appeals court panel Wednesday rejected a bid for re-sentencing by one of two men convicted of the 2009 murder of a Covina woman whose body was discovered in the Angeles National Forest.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal agreed with a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge’s finding that Pete Trejo Jr. is not eligible for relief under a change in state law that allows for defendants in some murder cases to be re-sentenced.
Trejo, now 43, and Robert Louis Caballero, now 48, were found guilty of first-degree murder for the Nov. 5, 2009, strangulation of Lorraine Minjarez of Covina, whose body was found near Mount Baldy Road.
Trejo is serving a life prison term without the possibility of parole for the killing, while Caballero — who was also found guilty of two other murders — was sentenced to death.
During closing arguments in the penalty phase of Caballero’s trial, Deputy District Attorney Sarika Kim told jurors that he made the 32-year-old woman “sit and listen as her grave was being dug.”