A state appeals court panel on Thursday ordered a new hearing for one of two men convicted in the murder of an off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy in Long Beach more than 18 years ago.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal sent the case against Justin Ashley Flint back to a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge for a new evidentiary hearing to determine whether Maria Cecilia Rosa was acting “in the course of (her) duties as a peace officer” when she was killed March 28, 2006.
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.”
Rosa was in her driveway and was preparing to leave for work at the Los Angeles County Inmate Reception Center when she was shot to death during an attempted robbery.
The appellate court justices noted in their appeal that Flint contends that the victim was not acting in the course of her duties as a law enforcement officer under the provisions of state law involving sheriff’s deputies who are employed to perform duties exclusively or initially relating to custodial assignments and whose authority extends to any place in the state only while they are engaged in the performance of duties of the officer’s employment.
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 the 30-year-old victim.
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, who was dressed in civilian clothing and was preparing to leave for work at the sheriff’s Inmate Reception Center.
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 38, had sought re-sentencing 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.
At a hearing last year, Lowenthal 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.
Sheriff Robert Luna — who was the deputy chief of the Long Beach Police Department’s investigations bureau at the time of the killing — was in the Long Beach courtroom for the August 2023 hearing and told City News Service afterward that the judge had “reached the right decision.”
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.
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In 2022, the California Supreme Court upheld the conviction and death sentence of Gonzalez, now 44.
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.”