LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A state appeals court panel ruled today that a former Fresno State University student is not eligible for re-sentencing in the murder of a UCLA student whose body was discovered after a fire was set inside her Westwood apartment in an effort to cover up the crime.
The three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal found that Alberto Hinojosa Medina—who is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for the Sept. 21, 2015, stabbing death of Andrea DelVesco—is "ineligible for relief" under a change in state law that affects defendants in some murder cases.
"The record of conviction conclusively establishes that Medina was DelVesco's actual killer," the panel found in the seven-page ruling that affirmed a lower court's ruling rejecting his request for re-sentencing.
Medina, now 28, was convicted in May 2018 of one count each of first- degree murder, arson of an inhabited structure and cruelty to an animal—the latter involving the 21-year-old woman's Chihuahua mix dog, Shay Panda, who had to be euthanized. He was also convicted of two counts of first-degree burglary with a person present involving break-ins at DelVesco's home in the 10900 block of Roebling Avenue and another apartment across the street.
Jurors found true the special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of a burglary.
In an earlier ruling in June 2020, a three-justice appellate court panel rejected the defense's contention that there were errors in Medina's trial.
The appellate court panel noted in that ruling that the DNA profile from bloodstains on a knife and a trash bag found in Medina's bedroom closet in Fresno less than a week after the killing matched the young woman's DNA profile, and that a partial DNA profile from a sample taken from a pair of women's underwear inside another trash bag was consistent with DelVesco's DNA profile.
A black sock with a bloodstain recovered from the trunk of Medina's red Nissan Sentra, and the DNA profile from that bloodstain also matched the victim's DNA profile, according to the June 2020 ruling.
The justices added that 13 photos of DelVesco's injuries, including three photos of burn injuries that the defense contended jurors should not have seen, were "relevant to show the motive for the arson" and to corroborate the testimony of the responding firefighters and law enforcement about the condition in which her body was found.
Medina, who had come to the area to visit a friend who attended UCLA, subsequently drove back to Fresno, where he lived with two roommates, Deputy District Attorney Victor Avila told jurors during the trial.
Medina—who was 22 at the time of the crime—was arrested less than a week after the killing.
Los Angeles police were notified when one of Medina's roommates tried to register a speaker that had been taken along with a laptop computer during the first Westwood burglary, and police subsequently went to Fresno, where they recovered the items containing DelVesco's DNA at the residence, Avila said.
The prosecutor told jurors that DelVesco's " life was taken away from her by this defendant ... He stabbed her multiple times to silence her so she could not call out for help."
Medina's trial attorney, Debra Werbel, said her client had gone to the area for a "normal college weekend" and "did not enter this home planning on killing Andrea DelVesco."
Werbel said her client was drinking that night and had "lived for 21 years ... as a good person," telling the judge that "we are never going to know exactly why this happened."
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark E. Windham, who imposed the life prison sentence, called Medina's crimes "truly monstrous."
"He brutally murdered a beautiful, innocent person. He seriously wounded an entire community," the judge said at Medina's sentencing hearing. "He must never walk free again."
As photo slides of the victim were shown on a large courtroom screen, DelVesco's mother, friends and fellow Pi Beta Phi sorority members spoke about the loss of a young woman who brought joy to their lives and urged the judge to impose the maximum sentence.
The victim was entering her fourth year at UCLA. The Austin, Texas, native was studying psychology and Spanish in hopes of becoming a bilingual psychologist.
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