A state appeals court panel has rejected the latest appeal from one of two men convicted in the murder of an off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy in Long Beach more than 20 years ago.
In a ruling released last Friday, the three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense’s contention that Justin Ashley Flint’s petition for re-sentencing had been wrongly denied.
Flint, who was charged along with co-defendant Frank Christopher Gonzalez, was convicted of one count each of first-degree murder and attempted robbery involving 30-year-old Maria Cecilia Rosa.
Gonzalez — who admitted shooting the off-duty deputy — was sentenced to death in May 2008, less than a month after being convicted of first-degree murder and attempted robbery.
Jurors also found true the special-circumstance allegation of murder during an attempted robbery against Gonzalez, along with an allegation that he used a gun to kill Rosa, a Pomona resident who was dressed in civilian clothing and was preparing to leave her girlfriend’s home in Long Beach for work at the sheriff’s Inmate Reception Center when she was shot to death on March 28, 2006.
A separate jury that heard the case against Flint did not find true the special circumstance allegation, and he was sentenced in 2008 to 29 years to life in state prison.
Flint, now 40, has sought re-sentencing three times as a result of a recent change in state law that has resulted in some defendants who were convicted of murder and other charges being released from prison.
In 2022, a state appeals court panel reversed now-retired Judge Gary J. Ferrari’s order denying Flint’s initial petition for re-sentencing. But the panel also ruled that the prosecution must have the opportunity to show that Flint was not eligible for re-sentencing under the provisions of a new state law because he knew or should have known that Rosa was a peace officer acting within the course of her duties.
In an August 2023 ruling that denied Flint’s bid for re-sentencing, Superior Court Judge Daniel Lowenthal wrote, “The physical evidence indicates, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Deputy Rosa presented her badge and identified herself as a peace officer.”
He noted in the ruling that Flint and co-defendant Frank Gonzalez “each made statements that indicate that they observed the presentation of the badge, and were aware that Deputy Rosa was a peace officer,” and that the prosecution had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that “Flint was aware, before the shooting, that Deputy Rosa was a peace officer who was engaged in the performance of her duties.”
At a hearing in 2023, the judge noted that the strongest evidence that Flint and Gonzalez knew Rosa was a peace officer were their own statements after the killing, noting that Flint had told his best friend that he saw a badge and knew she was a cop and that Gonzalez admitted during an undercover jailhouse operation that he knew that she was a peace officer.
The case was sent back in 2024 for another re-sentencing hearing, with Lowenthal rejecting the defense’s claim last September that Rosa lacked “peace officer authority” while she was off-duty.
In its 27-page ruling, the appellate court panel noted that she was “acting in the course of her peace officer duties when Gonzalez shot her” and that Flint is “not entitled” to relief.
In a 2010 ruling that upheld Flint’s conviction, a state appeals court panel noted that he sang the title line of the Bob Marley song “I Shot the Sheriff” while behind bars.
Flint unsuccessfully claimed in that appeal that the trial court wrongly prevented him from eliciting testimony to explain why he was fearful of a beating by sheriff’s deputies while he was in jail and from fully explaining why he sang the song to show that he would defend himself against such a beating, according to the 2010 ruling.
In 2022, the California Supreme Court upheld the conviction and death sentence of Gonzalez, now 46.
The state’s highest court noted in its 75-page ruling that Gonzalez informed multiple agents during an undercover operation following his arrest on unrelated charges that he had shot a female police officer.
“Gonzalez also disclosed numerous details about the crime, explaining (among other things) that he had left a bicycle at the scene, that he had thrown the murder weapon into the water and that he had not left any footprints because the crime occurred on pavement,” Justice Joshua P. Groban wrote on behalf of the panel.
That ruling noted that Gonzalez and Flint “were also heard discussing killing any witnesses to the murder, and Flint stated that the victim would not have been killed if she had given up her wallet.”