A state appeals court panel Wednesday upheld a man’s conviction for fatally stabbing his girlfriend nearly three years ago.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense’s contention that the trial court abused its discretion in denying Victor Sosa’s request to bar the prosecution from referring to a “sexual assault kit” by that name given that he was not charged with sexually assaulting the 19-year-old victim, Daisy De La O.
In their 13-page ruling, the appellate court justices noted that “the overwhelming evidence of defendant’s guilt precluded any reasonable probability of a different result,” and that Sosa has “not demonstrated a reasonable probability that the jury would have reach a different result if the sexual assault kit had been called by a different name.”
Sosa, now 28, was convicted in May 2022 of first-degree murder.
Jurors also found true an allegation that he used a knife during the commission of the crime.
The young woman — who died from multiple sharp force injuries — was found dead Feb. 23, 2021, inside a rug next to a trash container in an alleyway in the 1400 block of Long Beach Boulevard in an unincorporated area bordering Compton.