California man gets 50 years to life for fatal shooting of girlfriend near courthouse
A 35-year-old Long Beach man was sentenced on Tuesday, March 7, to 50 years to life in state prison for fatally shooting his girlfriend in the back near the Long Beach courthouse following a lengthy lovers’ quarrel.
John Jay Osborne was convicted of first-degree murder by a Long Beach Superior Court jury in November in the slaying of Nancy Romero, 46, in the 300 block of Magnolia Avenue on July 11, 2019.
The shooting occurred before 8 a.m. as people were beginning to arrive at the courthouse — including Romero’s sister, Iris.
A homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department, she recalled getting to the courthouse that day, frustrated by a lack of parking because Magnolia was closed off.
A deputy told her: “Some girl got shot.”
It wasn’t until days later she found out the victim was her sister. Iris Romero said she hadn’t known her sister and Osborne were dating.
“Had I been there earlier, I could only imagine how different life would have turned out for Mr. Osborne,” she told the court on Tuesday.
Iris Romero said she and her sister were two of seven siblings and close. Both would take care of their father, Reynaldo Contreras-Romero. Iris said Nancy would always be there to care for him if no one else could.
She remembered her sister, who left behind a son, as hopeful and motivated, even when life was difficult.
That July morning, Osborne and Nancy Romero argued earlier in the morning at their home in the 300 block of Daisy Avenue, attorneys said during trial. Romero packed her bags and told Osborne she was leaving, but Osborne, who was armed with a handgun in a holster against his back, followed her as she walked around the block.
The two were seen on multiple surveillance cameras in the area of Daisy and Magnolia avenues and Fourth Street.
Prosecutors argued Osborne shot Romero when he realized she was not going to return to the home with him.
Osborne testified that the argument stemmed from his suspicion Romero was using methamphetamine. He said he grabbed the gun and fired after Romero brought up a miscarriage while they argued. The couple had dated for about six months.
Osborne fired one shot, hitting Romero in the center of the back, prosecutor Marlon Duke Powers said. The bullet traveled through a lung and Romero’s heart. She died at a hospital.
Osborne walked off after the shooting, discarding the holster and a jacket in trash bins in an alley near his home. He then walked to his mother’s house near Chestnut Avenue and Ninth Street, where he changed and shaved off his long hair. Family members paid for him to stay at a nearby motel for four days before he turned himself in with an attorney.
“He knows right from wrong, but he ran to his family for help,” Iris Romero said Tuesday. “He knew exactly what he did when he did it.”
Public defender Kevin McGurk, arguing to have the sentencing enhancement for use of a firearm lowered or eliminated, argued that a psychological assessment of Osborne had showed effects of childhood trauma and abuse. His parents had abandoned him; he was homeless at 16 years old, McGurk said.
However, Judge Judith L. Meyer pointed out that Osborne had a steady job (working night shifts at a Papa Johns pizza place) and a home, signs that he had advanced past the childhood trauma, and she said there didn’t appear to be a link between Osborne’s past and what happened the morning he shot Romero.
“In this case, the court is affected by the fact that the victim was shot in the back and affected by the fact that the defendant carries a gun with him all the time,” Meyer said in her reasoning for keeping the enhancement.
Following the hearing, McGurk declined comment.
Nancy Romero’s death continues to affect her father.
“Even to this day, I don’t feel very well,” he said through an interpreter. “The way she died, the way she was killed was not fair. If (Osborne) did that to her and he did wrong, I need him to pay for it.”