Man, 23, Sentenced To 12 Years In Prison In Connection With Halloween Murder
SANTA ANA (CBSLA.com) — A 23-year-old man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in the stabbing death of the 18-year-old son of two Los Angeles police detectives at a 2009 Halloween party in La Habra.
Jose Francisco Nuno pleaded guilty Wednesday to five felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon or force likely to produce great bodily injury in the death of Joshua Mora-Rodriguez, according to City News Service.
He also admitted to a sentencing enhancement for gang activity.
Prosecutors agreed to drop murder and street terrorism charges in the deal.
Nuno was given credit for about three years in jail.
According to Deputy District Attorney Chris Duff, Mora-Rodriguez was "party hopping" the night he was killed.
The victim had no gang affiliation and is said to have mistakenly ended up at a gang party in La Habra.
Prosecutors said Nuno was involved in a dispute with a friend of the victim.
Duff said Mora-Rodriguez and his friends were jumped by multiple assailants when they tried to leave.
Mora-Rodriguez was fatally stabbed in the neck and bled to death in the street.
One of Nuno's two co-defendants, Steven Salvador Hernandez, of La Habra, was accused of inflicting the fatal wound.
He was convicted in May 2012 on charges of second-degree murder and street terrorism with a sentencing enhancement for criminal street gang activity.
Rene Antonio Lobos pleaded guilty in April to a charge of voluntary manslaughter. He also admitted to a sentencing enhancement for gang activity. Lobos was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Both Hernandez and Lobos were juveniles at the time of the murder and both were prosecuted as adults.
The victim's other started the Joshua Mora-Rodriguez Community Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to "taking a stand against criminal activity and gang violence", in his honor.
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