Conviction Overturned in Murder of Pasadena Man

California’s Second District Court of Appeal Tuesday overturned a man’s life prison sentence without the possibility of parole for a 2013 drug deal that went bad and left a 21-year-old Pasadena man dead.

The three-justice panel found there was insufficient evidence against John Michael Piepoli, Jr. to support the jury’s finding of a special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of a robbery.

The case will be sent back to the trial court for re-sentencing.

The case stemmed from an incident on January 15, 2013, when Zane Goldstein, 21, of Pasadena, agreed to meet the men for a drug deal near Maple Street and Chester Avenue in Pasadena, the district attorney’s office said.

When Goldstein arrived, Peter Parra of Pasadena, Kevin Jessie Cabrera of North Hollywood, and Raymond Frank Conchas of Covina tried to rob him and alleged shot him in the head with a shotgun as he tried to escape, prosecutors said.

Goldstein died two days later.

In November 2014, Piepoli was convicted by the Los Angeles Superior Courthouse in Downtown Los Angeles of one count each of first-degree murder, attempted robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery in connection with the shooting. Parra, Cabrera, and Conchas were sentenced in April 2015 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A fifth man, Ward Lacey IV of Pasadena, was sentenced in July 2015 to 15 years to life in prison.

In their 28-page ruling Tuesday, the appellate justices found that Piepoli “did not plan the criminal enterprise that led to Zane’s death,” had no role in supplying any firearms and was not present at the scene of the attempted robbery or the shooting of Zane Goldstein on January 15, 2013, according to media reports.

“Under the circumstances here, there was insufficient evidence as a matter of law that appellant was a major participant in the robbery,” the justices wrote.

According to the ruling, Piepoli had repeatedly told a police detective that he thought the plan was merely to scare Goldstein into turning over his marijuana, and that he wasn’t aware that Goldstein had been shot until he was informed the next morning by police.

Records of the case show that during Piepoli’s trial, Deputy District Attorney Stefan Mrakich acknowledged that Piepoli was not at the crime scene, but told jurors that he was “equally guilty.”

Piepoli’s trial attorney, William Jacobson, had countered that it was a case that has nothing to do with robbery. The defense lawyer argued that his client was not part of “an agreement to commit a murder” and “never knew what the actual conspiracy was.”