04 December 2018 :

Juan Rosario will get a 2nd chance to avoid the death penalty, after a judge threw out a jury’s recommendation that he be sentenced to die. Orange County Circuit Judge Leticia Marques ruled that the attorneys who defended Rosario at trial last year, Roger Weeden and Luis Davila, did not represent him effectively in its penalty phase, during which 12 jurors unanimously recommended Rosario’s execution. Rosario was convicted last year of killing 83-year-old Elena Ortega in her home. During Rosario’s trial, his ex-girlfriend told jurors that he broke into Ortega’s home early on Sept. 18, 2013, to commit a robbery - but Ortega woke up and, when Rosario realized she saw his face, he beat her until she was unconscious and set fires to 3 rooms in her house to try and get rid of any evidence. The case went unsolved for months until Rosario was arrested in another home invasion and his ex-girlfriend, Janet Gutierrez, decided to tell Orange County deputies what she said Rosario had told her when he came home the morning of Ortega’s death. Jurors recommended a death sentence for Rosario on June 2, 2017 (see). But the case stalled after he asked for new attorneys, who needed time to prepare for the hearing at which Marques was to decide whether to abide by the jury's recommendation and send Rosario to death row or override it and sentence him to life without parole. That hearing was scheduled for Friday - but it was cancelled Thursday afternoon when Marques issued her ruling. The judge’s order does not overturn Rosario’s guilty verdict, only the jury’s recommendation for a death sentence. A new penalty phase has not been scheduled. In her order, Marques acknowledged that it could take years.