High Court Won't Hear Murder Case

The California Supreme Court refused Wednesday to hear the case against a man convicted of the 1984 murder of his supervisor at a restaurant at Los Angeles International Airport.

The state's highest court denied a defense petition seeking review of the case against Henry Earl Duncan, who was convicted of the Nov. 13, 1984, stabbing death of Josephine Eileen DeBaun of Redondo Beach.

In an Aug. 1 ruling, a three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense's claim that there was insufficient evidence to place Duncan inside the money room where the 28-year-old woman was murdered at the International Host Restaurant, where they both worked.

The appellate court justices found in that ruling that there was "sufficient evidence for the jury to conclude the photographs accurately depicted appellant's palm and finger prints in the money room."

Duncan was initially sentenced to death for DeBaun's Nov. 13, 1984, stabbing death. But a three-justice panel from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the special circumstance allegation of murder during the course of a robbery and vacated his death sentence.

In November 2010, a Torrance Superior Court jury again found true the robbery special circumstance allegation. But the District Attorney's Office opted not to seek the death penalty for a second time against Duncan, who was sentenced in December 2010 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Previously:

• Court Rejects Appeal in 1984 Slaying
• New Sentence for Man Who Murdered Redondo Woman