Thursday, March 31, 2011

San Francisco, CA: Murder verdict overturned in girlfriend stabbing

SAN FRANCISCO—An appeals court has overturned a jury's second-degree murder verdict against a San Francisco man charged with the stabbing death of his former girlfriend.

Prosecutors say Tari Ramirez, also known as Tare Beltran, became enraged in 2000 when 28-year-old Claire Tempongko told him she aborted his child and the woman was killed in front of her 5- and 10-year-old children. Ramirez is serving a sentence of 16 years to life in prison.

The San Francisco appeals court ruled Wednesday that the trial judge misled jurors about the option of a manslaughter verdict and a new trial has been ordered. The San Francisco Chronicle says the judge's instructions asked jurors to measure Ramirez's conduct against how an average person would have acted under the same circumstances.

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