A judge rejected a re-sentencing bid Wednesday from one of three men convicted in a December 1998 takeover robbery in Harbor City in which a restaurant cook was fatally wounded after he couldn't come up with the combination to the business' safe.
Superior Court Judge Laura Laesecke called the crime "an extremely sophisticated robbery," saying that James William Matthews and co-defendants Jerrell D. Jones and Roderick Tushawn Lipsey entered the business together wearing face masks at a time when that was not commonplace.
The judge called the use of force "immediate and brutal."
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Matthews -- who participated in the hearing through a video link -- told the judge that there was no evidence that he knew the cook, Galindo Venegas, was being murdered, or that a restaurant customer was being sexually assaulted during the Dec. 13, 1998, attack at the Grinder restaurant, at 1301 W. Sepulveda Blvd.
"For the prosecutor to say that I was aware of everything that was going on here is not true," he told the judge.
The judge said that the restaurant's customers "could hear everything" that occurred, saying that Matthews would have been able to hear it, too.
Laesecke called Matthews a "major participant" in the crime and said he "did absolutely nothing to reduce the violence" during the attack, which "lasted a long time."
Deputy District Attorney Evelis DeGarmo told the judge that authorities don't know who slit the cook's throat, but contended that Matthews was a "major participant" in the crime and "integral to the robbery."
The judge said she believed Matthews would be convicted of murder under the current law. He had sought re-sentencing as a result of a recent change in state law that affects defendants in some murder cases.
Matthews, Jones and Lipsey were convicted of first-degree murder for the killing of Venegas, who died six days after being hit on the head and having his throat slashed for failing to come up with the safe combination.
Jones also was convicted of forcible rape, oral copulation and sexual battery by restraint involving a female customer later forced to stand naked on her head in the corner.
Prosecutors sought the death penalty against Jones and Lipsey, but a jury recommended that they spend the rest of their lives in prison without the possibility of parole. The prosecution did not seek the death penalty against Matthews, who also was sentenced to life without parole.
In a 2003 ruling, a three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal wrote that some of the patrons were "beaten to gain their compliance and establish an atmosphere of terror."
The evidence also showed that "Venegas was beaten and stabbed as part of the unsuccessful attempt to get the combination to the safe," the appellate court justices wrote.
Jones was arrested in front of a Greyhound bus station at Seventh and Alameda streets in Los Angeles two days after the crime. Police said the Los Angeles resident had a bus ticket to Cincinnati in his hand.
Matthews and Lipsey -- who lived in Long Beach -- were arrested the next month.
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