MAR VISTA, CA — A state appellate court panel Monday rejected a bid for re-sentencing by one of two men convicted of the murder of the owner of a Mar Vista medical marijuana dispensary during a robbery about 6 1/2 years ago.
James A. Eastland, now 27, was sentenced in 2019 to 40 years to life in state prison after pleading guilty to murder and robbery charges stemming from the Jan. 18, 2017, shooting death of Ovik Oganesyan, 50, at the dispensary at 12480 W. Venice Blvd., along with an unrelated robbery.
Superior Court Judge Curtis B. Rappe subsequently denied a petition for re-sentencing under state law that affects defendants in some murder cases.
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“Reviewing the totality of this evidence, it was sufficient to support the trial court’s conclusion that Eastland planned with his accomplice to shoot Oganesyan to facilitate the robbery,” the appellate court panel found in its 19-page ruling.
Eastland’s co-defendant, Kayshon Lamont Moody, now 31, is serving two consecutive life prison terms without the possibility of parole for the killings of Oganesyan and the shooting death of M.D. Mizu Rahman, 34, at a Chevron station in the 2100 block of