A state appeals court has upheld the murder conviction of a former Berkeley City College student who stabbed a man to death in an off-campus brawl four years ago.
The First District Court of Appeals in San Francisco Friday unanimously denied a defense lawyer's challenges.
An attorney for Andrew Hoeft-Edenfield argued that prosecutors shouldn't have been allowed to introduce his notebook into evidence, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. In it were lyrics that read, "I'm quick to cut a snitch, leave his body in a ditch."
Hoeft-Edenfield was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 16 years to life in prison for killing Christopher Wootton, 21, a UC Berkeley honors student, in a drunken, late-night fracas on fraternity row in May 2008.
The 20-year-old Hoeft-Edenfield and a friend were on their way home from a party near campus when they began arguing with a group of men. When he pulled out a pocket knife, Wootton, who was two weeks away from graduation, grabbed him from behind. Hoeft-Edenfield spun around and stabbed him in the chest.
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