2 Convicted Of Killing Tujunga Man Won't Get Their Day In Calif. Supreme Court

LOS ANGELES, CA -- The California Supreme Court refused Wednesday to review the case of two men convicted of murdering a Tujunga man in a drug deal that went bad in a parking lot at Los Angeles Valley College.

Raheen Ahab Taylor and Derrick Phillip Wilson were arrested a day after the Jan. 25, 2014, shooting death of Ricardo Zetino.

The state's high court's refusal to hear the case came three months after a three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense's contention that jurors should have been instructed on lesser offenses, including second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter.

"Defendants contend there was substantial evidence supporting the lesser charge of second-degree murder, based on a theory that the shooting occurred in reaction of Zetino's act of chasing the (defendants') Lexus and cutting it off, and not in the course of a robbery. We are not persuaded," the appellate justices found in their Jan. 19 ruling. "There is absolutely no evidence to support a reasonable doubt as to whether the killing was committed in the course of a robbery."

The appeals court panel also rejected Wilson's claims that there was insufficient evidence to support the special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of a robbery and that his life-without-parole sentence was unconstitutional.

Taylor is also serving a life term without the possibility of parole.

Along with first-degree murder, Taylor and Wilson were found guilty of three counts of robbery involving the 31-year-old murder victim and two others at the scene. Jurors also found that Taylor personally discharged a gun in the commission of the crime.

"It was a drug deal gone bad," Deputy District Attorney Edward Nison said after the two were convicted in July 2015.

Authorities said the choice of the college parking lot as a meeting spot was "random."

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies arrested the two at an apartment in San Jacinto, where they recovered two revolvers, including the .38-caliber weapon used to kill Zetino, according to the appellate court panel's ruling.

Taylor's DNA also matched DNA found on the murder weapon, the appellate court justices noted.

-- City News Service, photo via Shutterstock