Man Sentenced for Fatal 1998 Stabbing
From Times Staff Reports
A 26-year-old man was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison Wednesday for fatally stabbing a Sherman Oaks woman in 1998.
Prosecutors said Luis Phillip Ponce killed his former girlfriend, Eva Maria Traschel-Gooch, 34, after she threatened to tell police he was selling cocaine. He then fled to Mexico but was caught a few months later when he tried to reenter the United States.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Hoff gave Ponce the maximum sentence.
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