{"id":86740,"date":"2019-03-27T15:02:48","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T22:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=86740"},"modified":"2019-03-27T17:34:19","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T00:34:19","slug":"palmdale-mans-conviction-reduced-for-girlfriends-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2019\/03\/27\/palmdale-mans-conviction-reduced-for-girlfriends-killing\/","title":{"rendered":"Palmdale man’s conviction reduced for girlfriend’s killing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The killing happened on Sept. 20, 2014 at the home in the 38000 block of Third Street East in Palmdale. Inset: Magda Bermudez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LOS ANGELES – A state appeals court panel reduced a Palmdale man’s conviction to second-degree murder for the slaying of his girlfriend, who was stabbed nearly 100 times at the Palmdale home she shared with her 84-year-old mother.<\/p>\n

In a ruling released this week, a three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal agreed with the defense’s contention that there was insufficient evidence of premeditation and deliberation to support Jose Alberto Martinez<\/strong>‘s first-degree murder conviction for the Sept. 20, 2014, stabbing of Magda Bermudez<\/strong>, 49, whose body was found by her mother in a bedroom.<\/p>\n

“The People contend the jury’s finding of premeditation and deliberation was supported by a combination of the manner of killing, Martinez and Magda’s ‘tumultuous romantic relationship,’ and Martinez’s post-killing actions. We conclude otherwise. Martinez’s infliction of 98 stab wounds was not an execution-style killing in which the manner of killing demonstrated a cold, calculated judgment,” the panel found in its 24-page opinion. “Therefore, additional evidence of planning activity or motive was necessary to support a conviction of first-degree murder. It is undisputed the People presented no evidence of planning activity at trial.”<\/p>\n

The appellate court panel ordered Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Shannon Knight to re-sentence Martinez for second-degree murder and to exercise her discretion on whether to impose sentencing enhancements for his prior convictions for assault with a deadly weapon and robbery in 2001 and extortion in 2010.<\/p>\n

The first jury to hear the case against Martinez deadlocked, with the second jury convicting him in May 2017 of first-degree murder.<\/p>\n

Previous related stories:<\/p>\n

Palmdale man gets 88 years for girlfriend\u2019s stabbing death<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Palmdale woman stabbed 70+ times, boyfriend ordered to stand trial<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Palmdale man pleads not guilty to stabbing, killing girlfriend<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Woman stabbed to death in Palmdale, boyfriend arrested<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES – A state appeals court panel reduced a Palmdale man’s conviction to second-degree murder for the slaying of his girlfriend, who was stabbed nearly 100 times at the Palmdale home she shared with her 84-year-old mother. In a ruling released this week, a three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal agreed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":59199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[719,1499,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86740"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}