{"id":229991,"date":"2026-03-21T10:23:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T10:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/229991\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T10:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T10:23:12","slug":"man-convicted-in-1987-san-jose-photo-shop-murder-resentenced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/229991\/","title":{"rendered":"Man convicted in 1987 San Jose photo shop murder resentenced"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE, Calif. – A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge on Friday resentenced a man convicted of killing an 18-year-old woman<\/a> at a San Jose <\/a>photo shop in 1987 to 25 years to life, making him eligible for parole.<\/p>\n

Conviction in brutal killing<\/p>\n

What we know<\/p>\n

Erik Chatman, 61, was convicted in 1993 of killing Rosellina LoBue at a drive-up photo shop where his wife also worked. Prosecutors said Chatman stabbed LoBue more than 50 times and carried out the attack in front of his 4-year-old son.<\/p>\n

Chatman was originally sentenced to death, but that sentence was reduced in 2024 to life in prison.<\/p>\n

Resentencing and legal challenges<\/p>\n

Dig deeper<\/p>\n

Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen later petitioned the court to resentence Chatman. The move resolves habeas corpus and Racial Justice Act petitions Chatman filed last year, alleging racial bias and misconduct during his trial, according to the Mercury News.<\/a><\/p>\n

On Friday, Superior Court Judge Robert Hawk ruled that Chatman does not pose an unreasonable risk to public safety, noting he has spent more than 35 years in prison and has had no rule violations in the past 20 years. At the time of the crime, Chatman was 22 and is considered a youthful offender under state law.<\/p>\n

Family reacts in court<\/p>\n

LoBue\u2019s family appeared distraught in court ahead of the judge\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

“This is not right. You can\u2019t do this. Your judgment is ridiculous. He stabbed her 51 times \u2014 one of those stab wounds was in her eye,” a relative said.<\/p>\n

James McManis, an attorney for the family, underscored the brutality of the crime.<\/p>\n

“He told his girlfriend he wasn\u2019t happy with the photos and stabbed the girl repeatedly,” McManis said. “She begged him to stop, but the more she begged, the more it felt good to stab her \u2014 even after she went quiet.”<\/p>\n

Emotions ran high during the hearing, with some family members interrupting proceedings. At one point, LoBue\u2019s brother was pulled from the courtroom and later suffered a medical emergency.<\/p>\n

The courtroom was cleared following the resentencing decision.<\/p>\n

The Source<\/p>\n

Santa Clara County Superior Court resentencing hearing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE, Calif. – A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge on Friday resentenced a man convicted of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[47513,104426,88,90,89,198,1064,82498],"class_list":["post-229991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-erik-chatman","tag-rosellina-lobue","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-superior-court","tag-superior-court-judge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}