Recent murder trials which have received a great deal of press coverage are bringing a focus back to violent crimes in Los Angeles.A man found guilty of slaying his girlfriend and leaving her to rot in a backyard shed was sentenced on September 8th to 15 years to life in prison. A jury convicted the man of second-degree murder in December for killing his girlfriend, stuffing her into a box and leaving her to decompose in a shed in August 2006, the hottest summer on record in the San Fernando Valley.Also on September 8th, a death sentence was handed down for an Azusa gang member convicted of murdering four people between 1999 and 2004. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy rejected an automatic motion to reduce Ralph Flores' punishment to life in prison without the possibility of parole for three of the killings, and also denied the Los Angeles criminal defense attorney's request for a new trial.Los Angeles criminal defense attorneys know that California Tagged as: jury trial defense