A Long Beach gang member’s second-degree murder conviction for the 2012 killing of his girlfriend was upheld by a state appeals court panel Wednesday.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense’s claim that the trial court did not give a jury instruction on involuntary manslaughter in Marcos Gustavo Zermeno’s trial.
The appellate court justices noted the defense’s theory of the case was that the shooting death of Zermeno’s girlfriend, Eleanora Rivera Hidalgo, on August 4, 2012 was an accident and that jurors were instructed accordingly.
“Appellant was not entitled to have the jury instructed on involuntary manslaughter in the absence of evidence sufficient to support such an instruction,” the panel found in its 12-page ruling.
The appellate panel also rejected the defense’s argument that the trial court was incorrectly informed by instructors about a person fleeing after the commission of a crime. Zermeno fled the scene of the shooting and was arrested eight days later in Compton by Long Beach police detectives.
Police said Zermeno and Hidalgo, who was also the mother to their three young children, were arguing inside a car parking at a mobile home park in the 6400 block of Atlantic Avenue before Hidalgo was shot.
Zermeno was convicted in October 2013 of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 28 years to life in state prison in December 2013.
City News Service contributed to this report.