A 32-year-old man was convicted of voluntary manslaughter Wednesday for a 2015 Drake Park stabbing, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office.

Elmer Leonardo Orellana was charged with murder in the death of 22-year-old Jesus Pimentel, but his defense raised questions of self-defense, and after about five hours of deliberations, jurors convicted him of the lesser charge, according to prosecutors.

Orellana had multiple possible motives for killing Pimentel, but prosecutors were unable to definitively prove any particular one based on the evidence, Deputy District Attorney Marlon Powers said.

Orellana could face up to 12 years in prison at his sentencing, which is scheduled for Aug. 24, prosecutors said.

Long Beach police arrested Orellana on Nov. 9 in 2015, about two weeks after Pimentel was discovered stabbed to death on a sidewalk in the 1000 block of Maine Avenue.

Orellana was already in custody on two unrelated counts of assault with a deadly weapon when detectives linked him to the murder, police said at the time.

Jurors found Orellana not guilty on both assault counts, according to the district attorney’s office.

Jeremiah Dobruck is executive editor of the Long Beach Post where he oversees all day-to-day newsroom operations. In his time working as a journalist in Long Beach, he’s won numerous awards for his investigative reporting and editing. Before coming to the Post in 2018, he wrote for publications including the Press-Telegram, Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times. Reach him at [email protected] or @jeremiahdobruck on Twitter.