Court Won't Hear Appeal in Elderly Roommate Killing

The California Supreme Court refused to examine the case against a man convicted of murdering his 67-year-old roommate, who tried to intervene in an argument at an apartment that they shared with four others in North Hollywood.

Manuel Garcia was convicted last year of first-degree murder and is serving a 26-year-to-life term for the June 2, 2012, stabbing and beating death of Jorge Hortencio Valladares.

In a June 26 ruling that upheld Garcia’s conviction, a three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal noted that Garcia was “46 years younger than Valladares, outweighed him by 58 pounds and was five inches taller.”

Garcia -- who had been involved in a dispute with his live-in girlfriend -- attacked Valladares after the older man told him not to hit the woman, according to the ruling.

Garcia “did not kill Valladares by a single fatal act, but by bludgeoning him repeatedly with a pan and stabbing him repeatedly with a knife,” the justices noted.

They added that his use of two different weapons on Valladares “manifested deliberation and premeditation.”

City News Service