| For Immediate Release Case # 06ZF0122
|
Susan Kang Schroeder Public Affairs Counsel Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami |
MAN SENTENCED TO 36 TO LIFE FOR
STABBING AND MURDERING SAN CLEMENTE
BAR PATRON AFTER PING PONG GAME
SANTA ANA – A San Clemente man was sentenced today to the maximum of 36 years to life in prison for stabbing and murdering a man in a parking lot after a game of ping pong in a bar. Jose Elias Sandoval, 31, San Clemente, was found guilty on March 5, 2008 of second degree murder with a true finding on a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon. Sandoval has a prior strike conviction.
On December 21, 2005, Jason Robinson was playing ping pong with friends at the Beach Hut bar in San Clemente and Sandoval joined the game. The defendant and Robinson both went to the men’s restroom and Sandoval began arguing with Robinson when the two came out of the bathroom. Sandoval got into a fight with Robinson, but the fight was broken up.
At approximately 10:10 p.m., Sandoval left the bar and went to his house two blocks away and returned to the bar armed with a knife. At around 11:00 p.m. Robinson went outside to smoke a cigarette. Sandoval approached Robinson while wearing a ski mask, stabbed him three times in the chest, and fled the scene. Officers arrested the defendant 30 minutes later.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Steve McGreevy of the Homicide Unit prosecuted this case.
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