The Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse in Downtown Long Beach.
The Gov. George Deukmejian Courthouse in Downtown Long Beach. File photo.

A 23-year-old man who pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in connection with his father’s killing in Long Beach was sentenced today to 11 years in state prison.

Jason Hernan Cortes—who has been in custody since his December 2019 arrest—also agreed to waive credit for all of the time he had spent behind bars until his plea earlier this year, according to Deputy District Attorney Karen Brako.

Cortes was charged along with co-defendant Daniel Castro Fernandez, now 25, in the stabbing death of Hernan Cortes, 41, whose body was found in a motor home near Harbor Avenue and 15th Street on July 6, 2018.

Fernandez was believed to have wielded the knife during the attack, according to the prosecutor. He pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and was sentenced earlier this month to 15 years to life in state prison.

Investigators said they believed the killing stemmed from a robbery gone bad.

The elder Cortes had saved up a large amount of cash to buy a home in Wilmington, but the money was never found, according to the prosecutor. The killers fled to Las Vegas after the attack, according to prosecutors.

The two defendants, who lived in Corning, about 100 miles north of Sacramento, were arrested in December 2019 in the northern California community of Placerville.

Killer who fled to Vegas after deadly West Long Beach robbery gets 15-to-life in prison