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