San Diego : Request to Change Guilty Plea Denied
A man who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder to avoid the gas chamber was sentenced Friday to 25 years to life in state prison after the judge in the case denied his request to withdraw his guilty plea.
Christopher E. Bell, 23, of San Diego pleaded guilty in July on the fourth day of his murder trial. His co-defendant in the case, Tyrone L. Martin, 21, was acquitted of murder charges at the conclusion of the trial because the jury did not believe the testimony of a third man involved in the crime.
The three men were accused of executing Douglas Ratray, a 34-year-old La Mesa man, after robbing and kidnaping him at an ATM machine on Oct. 29, 1989.
Bell asked Superior Court Judge J. Perry Langford to allow the withdrawal of the guilty plea after Martin was found guilty only of lesser charges related to the crime.
Martin is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 6 on the charges he was convicted of--conspiracy to commit robbery and second-degree robbery.
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