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California

No Reduction of Bail in Pumpkin Case

By RICHARD MAROSI
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TIMES STAFF WRITER

An Orange County judge on Friday refused to reduce the $250,000 bail for a Buena Park homeowner whose murder conviction for killing a teenage prankster was tossed out earlier this year.

Defendant Peter Solomona requested that his bail be dropped to $50,000 while he awaits his new trial. Defense Atty. Mark Werksman said Solomona did not pose a flight risk.

But Superior Court Judge Nancy Wieben Stock rejected the request, citing the previous judge’s bail order and a law that sets a minimum $250,000 bail for murder charges.

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Solomona was convicted last year of second-degree murder for shooting a 17-year-old high school student whom he suspected of stealing his plastic-pumpkin display. A judge ordered a new trial, saying he gave inadequate jury instructions.

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Richard Marosi

Richard Marosi is a former Metro editor for the Los Angeles Times. He previously reported from the U.S.-Mexico border. Marosi was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2015 for his series on Mexican laborers and in 2013 for his stories on the fate of thousands of immigrants who were deported from the U.S. to Mexico in recent years. He has delved deeply into Mexico’s drug wars, producing a groundbreaking series on the Sinaloa cartel and sharing an Overseas Press Club Award in 2009. In the early 2000s, his corruption investigations in Southeast Los Angeles County contributed to the indictment or ouster of a dozen politicians and city officials. Marosi is a Southern California resident but remains loyal to the Giants, 49ers and Warriors of his native San Francisco Bay Area.

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