California v. Montanez
Annotate this CaseDelores Attig was murdered in 1986. She was with two male friends smoking and talking in their car when they were attacked by four male assailants, two of them armed with guns. The assailants bound her friends and robbed them. Delores was led a short distance away, where she was gang raped and then shot once in the head at close range. Her murder remained a cold case for more than 20 years, until DNA analysis of evidence collected from her body led to the arrest of four men in 2007: Eddie Montanez, his brother Steve Montanez, and two juveniles. In 2010, a jury convicted Eddie of the first degree felony murder of Delores, and found true a principal personally used a firearm. The jury rejected special circumstance allegations that Eddie aided and abetted the murder while engaged in the commission and attempted commission of robbery, rape, sodomy, and oral copulation. He was sentenced to an indeterminate term of 25 years to life in prison, plus an additional year for the firearm enhancement. In 2012, the Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment. In 2018, Eddie petitioned to vacate his conviction pursuant to Penal Code 1172.6, enacted to allow certain defendant to take advantage of legislative amendments to restrict the scope of California's felony murder law. Eddie's petition was denied; on appeal he argued there was insufficient evidence to support the superior court’s findings he was a major participant in the felonies underlying Delores’ murder who acted with reckless indifference to human life. Finding no reversible error in the denial of Eddie's petition, the Court of Appeal affirmed the order.
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