By Andy Furillo
A one-time Foothill High School football star pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter today and is scheduled to be sentenced in Sacramento Superior Court later this month to 42 years and eight months in prison.
Lovelle Chapman, 22, was convicted of second-degree murder almost three years ago in the Sept. 27, 2003, drive-by shooting death of Pasha Voskoboinik.
The verdict was overturned on appeal on grounds that the jury had not been properly instructed, according to the defendant's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Amy Rogers, and the case was returned to Sacramento for trial last year.
Chapman had been sentenced to 40 years in state prison on the second-degree murder conviction. His chances of being paroled are much greater with the voluntary manslaughter conviction. He is now likely to be paroled in a little more than 36 years.
A co-defendant in the case, Jadrian Reyes, was acquitted by a jury in September 2006.
Prosecutors identified Chapman as the triggerman in the shooting death of the 18-year-old victim at a Citrus Heights party.
A star cornerback as well as a running back at Foothill, Chapman was on track for a possible college scholarship before he got arrested in the Voskoboinik homicide.
Voskoboinik, 18, a Folsom High graduate and immigrant from Latvia, was working in construction at the time of his death. He attended the party where the fatal shooting took place but authorities said he was not involved in a gang-related disagreement that prompted the shooting that took his life.
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