Convicted Killer Asks for New Trial

An appellate court has thrown out a suit by the man convicted of killing a Rohnert Park guitar maker in 2010, arguing that evidence of prior crimes should not have been a determinant in his sentence.

Sonoma County resident Joshua Rhea Begley was convicted of the February 2010 killing of Taku Sakashta inside his guitar shop on Martin Avenue. Begley, now 32, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the gruesome crime.

Prior to the February 2010 murder, Begley had been arrested 30 times on charges of auto theft, resisting police and receiving stolen property.

In a 2005 incident, he got into a fistfight with a car salesman in Santa Rosa after being told he lacked proper identification to apply for a loan. He punched the man and attempted to stab him, according to court records, before being stopped by another employee.

On another occasion, he followed an off-duty police officer home and another followed a woman, going so far as to look into her windows when she got home. Despite the long trail of crimes, Begley argued that he should be retried without the prior crimes being admitted into evidence.

According to police, Taku Sakashta, a well-known steel guitar maker, was stabbed 11 times, including in his face, chest and neck, then left in bushes behind the store.

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