A state appeals court on Thursday ordered a new hearing for one of two men convicted of killing a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy off duty in Long Beach more than 18 years ago.

The three-judge panel of California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal sent the case against Justin Ashley Flint back to a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge for a new evidentiary hearing to determine whether Maria Cecilia Rosa was acting “in the exercise of duties as a peace officer” when she was killed on March 28, 2006.

In an August 2023 ruling denying Flint’s motion for re-sentencing, Superior Court Judge Daniel Lowenthal wrote, “The physical evidence indicates beyond a reasonable doubt that Deputy Rosa produced his badge and identified himself as an officer of peace”.

He noted in the ruling that Flint and co-defendant Frank Gonzalez “each made statements indicating that they observed the display of the badge and knew Deputy Rosa was a peace officer” and that the prosecution proved that beyond a reasonable doubt. that “Flint was aware, prior to the shooting, that Deputy Rosa was a peace officer who was engaged in the performance of his duties.”

Rosa was in her driveway preparing to leave for work at the Los Angeles County Detention Center when she was shot during an attempted robbery.

The appeals court judges noted in the appeal that Flint contends the victim did not act in the exercise of his duties as a law enforcement officer in accordance with the provisions of state law involving sheriff’s deputies who are hired to perform duties solely or primarily related to assignments of custody. and whose authority extends to any place in the State only while engaged in the discharge of the officer’s duties.

Flint, who was charged with co-defendant Frank Christopher Gonzalez, was convicted of one count each of first-degree murder and attempted robbery involving the 30-year-old victim.

Gonzalez, who admitted to shooting the off-duty deputy, was sentenced to death in May 2008, less than a month after being convicted of first-degree murder and attempted robbery.

Jurors also found true the special circumstance charge of manslaughter during an attempted robbery against Gonzalez, along with the charge that he used a gun to kill Rosa, who was dressed in civilian clothes and preparing to leave for service at the Sheriff’s Inmate Reception Center. .

A separate jury that heard the case against Flint did not find the special circumstance allegation true, and he was sentenced in 2008 to 29 years to life in prison.

Flint, now 38, sought a review of the sentence following a recent change in state law that has resulted in the release from prison of some defendants who were convicted of murder and other charges.

In 2022, a state appeals court panel overturned an order by now-retired Judge Gary J. Ferrari denying Flint’s original petition for a resentencing. But the panel also ruled that the prosecution must be able to show that Flint was ineligible for re-sentencing under the new state law because he knew or should have known that Rosa was an officer of the the peace that was acting in its course. duties.

At a hearing last year, Lowenthal noted that the strongest evidence that Flint and Gonzalez knew Rosa was a peace officer were their own statements after the killing, noting that Flint told his best friend that he saw a badge and that he knew she was a police officer and that Gonzalez admitted during an undercover operation at the jail that he knew she was a peace officer.

Sheriff Robert Luna — who was deputy chief of the Long Beach Police Department’s bureau of investigations at the time of the murder — was in the Long Beach courtroom for the August 2023 hearing and later told City News Service that the judge “came to the right decision. .”

In a 2010 ruling upholding Flint’s conviction, a state appeals court noted that he sang the title track to Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff” while behind bars.

Flint unsuccessfully argued in that appeal that the trial court wrongly prevented him from obtaining testimony to explain why he feared a beating by sheriff’s deputies while in jail and to fully explain why he sang the song to show that he will defend himself against such a beating, according to the 2010 ruling.