From Niesha Lofing:
Two prisoners who are serving time for a violent Roseville home invasion robbery and arson will remain in prison, the Third District Court of Appeals has decided.
The court denied the appeal of Octavio Gomez Perez, 23, and Jose Humberto Magana Torres, 25, who claimed evidentiary and jury instruction errors occurred and that the judge made errors in sentencing them during their 2007 trial.
The men are serving 62 years to life in state prison for attempted premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit robbery, false imprisonment of an elder, assault with a deadly weapon, arson, auto theft and other crimes, a news release from Placer County District Attorney Bradford R. Fenocchio's office states.
A third man, Heiner Orlando Villeda, 31, pleaded guilty to seven charges before the trial began and is serving a 24-year prison sentence. He was not included in the appeal.
The men broke into a Sun City Roseville home in June 2004 and beat and tied up the couple who lived there. The men then set fire to the home and took a car that was parked in the garage.
Perez and Torres claimed that the trial court judge should not have allowed Villeda's guilty plea to be considered in their own cases during jury instructions, the release states.
The men also claimed the judge allowed hearsay evidence and said their attorneys weren't allowed to cross-examine Villeda about why he pleaded guilty.
The appeals court disagreed, stating that beyond a reasonable doubt, "the jury would have convicted both defendants of the home invasion robbery even had Villeda's guilty plea not been introduced."
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