By Tommy Nguyen
VENTURA, CA – Ventura Superior Court Judge Patricia Murphy this week denied a motion by the accused to reduce his sentence because of what he did to the victim, and how he behaves when given a chance to recover.
The accused’s violations date back to 2003, with felony charges of the use of deadly weapon, street terrorism and dissuading a witness from reporting a crime.
With the Probation Office’s recommendation to terminate probation, withdraw a plea, and declare a misdemeanor, counsel filed the motion to reduce the felony to a misdemeanor on the grounds that the accused’s violation had happened very long ago, about 20 years.
The judge said she has spent a long time thinking about the case, and despite the fact that it had been some time since the crime, she disagreed with the probation recommendation.
“This was a very serious event where the victim was outnumbered,” Judge Murphy explained. “He was an innocent third party, and the event was over when [the accused] then threatened him with a knife.”
However, the thing that bothered the judge even more was the fact the accused denied any involvement, denied being a gang member and blamed the victim for the injuries during his interview at the time of the incident.
“He [the accused] showed no remorse, no empathy, no insight, even right now in the declaration that he wrote to the court,” the judge said, adding the accused violated nearly every single term of his probation.
