Jorge Diaz, the homeless man accused in the March 2011 homicide of 72-year-old Francisco Rojas at a Hollister cemetery, was sentenced to six years in prison and, with credits, will serve about 28 months, according to public defender Gregory LaForge, who represented him.
Judge Steven Sanders handed down the mid-term sentence for the manslaughter charge Thursday. Diaz, initially charged with homicide, had accepted a plea deal on a lesser charge.
Diaz, 35, previously pleaded not guilty in February 2012. He was accused of stabbing Rojas on March 30 of 2011 at the IOOF Cemetery on Buena Vista Road.
In January, Diaz agreed to accept a plea arrangement on a charge of voluntary manslaughter, with the homicide count dropped.
The nearly two-year court process began following the cemetery incident – after which witnesses described seeing Diaz with Rojas together moments before the murder. Diaz was found at another location in Hollister the day after the homicide. Around 3:15 p.m. that day, deputies responded to the 600 block of Buena Vista after a report of a stabbing. Deputies found Rojas with a stab wounds in his heart and on his hands. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
If he had been convicted of homicide, Diaz would have faced 25 years to life in prison.
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