Justin Ashley Flint, convicted of acting as a lookout in the 2006 killing of off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy Maria Cecilia Rosa in Long Beach, has lost his latest bid for freedom. A state appeals court panel rejected Flint’s argument that his petition for resentencing had been wrongly denied, ruling he is not entitled to relief under California’s revised felony-murder law.
California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal, in a decision made up of three justices, found that Rosa retained her authority as a peace officer even while off duty, and that she was killed in the course of those duties, according to metnews.com. That finding closed off the path Flint needed to qualify for resentencing under Penal Code section 1172.6, the law that reshaped who can be held liable for murder committed during another felony. The court concluded that Rosa was a regular section 830.1, subdivision (a) deputy vested with off-duty peace officer authority, not a more limited, modified deputy, the outlet reported.
Flint was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted robbery for his role in the attack on 30-year-old Rosa, who was shot by codefendant Frank Christopher Gonzalez, as detailed by the seed report from MyNewsLA.com. Gonzalez admitted to shooting Rosa and was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted robbery in May 2008, when jurors also found true a special-circumstance allegation of murder during an attempted robbery and determined he used a gun to kill her. A separate jury did not find that same special-circumstance allegation true against Flint, who was sentenced to 29 years to life in state prison that year.
A Driveway Ambush That Turned Deadly
Rosa was in her driveway preparing to leave for work at the Los Angeles County Inmate Reception Center when she was confronted during the attempted robbery, according to lbpost.com. Rosa, who friends described as engaging, fun and pretty, had served six years with the sheriff’s department, per the Los Angeles Times. Gonzalez was sentenced to death in May 2008 for the killing, and the station's report notes that Flint had told his best friend he saw Rosa’s badge and knew she was a police officer before the shooting.
The legal fight over Flint’s eligibility for resentencing has dragged on for years, with Flint seeking resentencing three times. A state appeals court panel reversed Judge Gary J. Ferrari’s order denying Flint’s initial resentencing petition in 2022, which required prosecutors to show that Flint knew or should have known Rosa was a peace officer acting within her duties at the time of the attack. The case was then sent back for another resentencing hearing in 2024.
Judges Keep Siding Against Flint
Superior Court Judge Daniel J. Lowenthal denied Flint’s bid for resentencing in August 2023, finding evidence that Rosa had identified herself as a peace officer and was engaged in the performance of her duties, per the same account from lbpost.com. Lowenthal again rejected the defense claim that Rosa lacked peace officer authority while off duty in a September 2025 ruling. Those findings set up the appeal that the 2nd District Court of Appeal has now denied, affirming that Rosa was killed while in the course of her peace officer duties and that Flint is ineligible for section 1172.6 relief, according to metnews.com.
A state appeals court panel had previously upheld Flint’s conviction in 2010. While behind bars that year, Flint sang the title line of Bob Marley’s song “I Shot the Sheriff.” During a 2022 undercover jailhouse operation, Gonzalez admitted he knew Rosa was a peace officer and disclosed numerous details about the crime to multiple agents, including that he had shot a female police officer, left a bicycle at the scene, thrown the murder weapon into the water, and avoided leaving footprints because the attack happened on pavement, according to court documents described by MyNewsLA.com. The same operation captured Gonzalez and Flint discussing killing witnesses to the murder, with Flint stating that Rosa would not have been killed if she had given up her wallet. California Supreme Court Associate Justice Joshua P. Groban wrote that Gonzalez disclosed numerous details about the crime in a 2022 ruling that upheld Gonzalez’s conviction and death sentence.
Part of a Broader Legal Fight Over Felony Murder
Flint’s case is one of many testing the limits of California’s overhauled felony-murder law, which has let some people convicted of murder and related charges walk free from prison, per the seed report. Nearly 1,200 people had been resentenced statewide under the changes as of December, according to a California Policy Lab research summary. In a separate case last year, the California Supreme Court sided with an accomplice who did not pull the trigger in a different felony-murder dispute, as reported by CalMatters, underscoring how unsettled the law remains for defendants who did not fire the fatal shot. For Flint, though, the appellate panel’s finding that Rosa was acting within her duties as a peace officer when she was killed has now closed off that avenue entirely.
