Woman Who Pleaded No Contest in Pasadena Barbershop Killing Not Eligible for Re-Sentencing

A state appellate court panel Thursday rejected an appeal from a woman who contends she should be re-sentenced in connection with the stabbing death of a Pasadena barbershop owner during a robbery — a crime for which her then-boyfriend was also convicted.

The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal found that Sabrina Octavia King is “ineligible for re-sentencing” under a change in state law that applies to defendants in some murder cases because she pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter — not murder.

King, now 28, was sentenced in December 2014 to 21 years in state prison.

The appeal was filed on her behalf after a judge in Pasadena rejected her bids for re-sentencing in 2019 and 2020.

Her former boyfriend, Davon Westley Moore, was convicted of first-degree murder for the Sept. 20, 2011, killing of King King, who was not related to Sabrina King. Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegations of murder during the commission of a robbery and murder during the commission of a burglary.

Moore, now 32, is serving a life prison term without the possibility of parole.

In a December 2015 ruling in which Moore’s conviction was upheld, a state appeals court panel noted that Moore and King decided to rob the victim the same day she had met the barbershop owner and that Moore carried with a knife with him “in case it gets crazy.”

The 43-year-old victim was stabbed three times in the neck inside his barbershop, and a laptop computer was taken. He was found dead in the early morning hours of Sept. 21, 2011, near the barbershop, where he lived as well as worked. He collapsed after trying to get help.

Moore and King left bloody footprints leading away from the barbershop and into an alley in the direction of a friend’s house, where they were subsequently arrested, according to the 2015 appellate court ruling.