From Chelsea Phua:
A court has denied the appeal of two men convicted of breaking into the home of a senior Roseville couple, tying them up and setting the house on fire in an attempt to kill them, authorities said.
According to a news release from the Placer County District Attorney's office, Octavio Gomez Perez, 23 and Jose Humberto Magana Torres, 25, claimed that evidentiary and jury instruction errors occurred during the trial of the 2004 crime.
In particular, the men claimed that a judge should not have allowed a third defendant's guilty plea to be considered in their own cases. The Third District Court of Appeal disagreed with the contentions, saying that the jury would have convicted Perez and Torres even without the third defendant's guilty plea.
"This decision ensures that these defendants will never victimize any more citizens in the state of California again," Deputy District Attorney Rick Opich said.
During the June 5, 2004, home invasion, the female victim, then 67, managed to untie herself as the house was burning and escape next door for help. The male victim, then 68, became unconscious after breathing too much smoke. He was rescued by a neighbor and public safety personnel, and later recovered from his smoke inhalation injuries.
Perez and Torres were sentenced 62 years to life in state prison after a jury convicted them on 20 counts each in 2007.
The third defendant, Heiner Orlando Villeda, 31, pleaded guilty to seven charges and was sentenced to 24 years to life in prison.
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