A state appeals court panel Tuesday denied a bid for re-sentencing by a man convicted of murdering an attorney at his La Habra Heights home during a robbery more than two decades ago.
Joseph Jesse Valdez, now 45, is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for the July 11, 2000, shooting death of Nicholas Kallins.
Kallins, 38, was shot multiple times after he returned from a weekend fishing trip in the San Diego area. He was found dead by firefighters called to respond to a blaze at his home.
Valdez was convicted in April 2003 of first-degree murder, robbery and arson of an inhabited dwelling, along with evading police and the attempted murder of another man five days later.
Valdez was seen in possession of the victim’s credit cards, camera, calculator and driver’s license, and the victim’s possessions were later found in the defendant’s home, according to the ruling from the three-justice panel of California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal.
In June 2023, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge found that Valdez was prosecuted as the actual shooter and denied the defense’s petition for re-sentencing, according to the ruling.
In a supplemental brief filed last month, the defendant claimed that he should be allowed to “have a hearing to figure out who really was the killer,” the ruling noted.