Hearing Delayed on Alleged Misconduct by Prosecutor
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A hearing in a case in which a prosecutor argued that two young Torrance men each fired the single bullet that killed a local drug dealer has been postponed until June 6.
In a brief hearing Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Francis J. Hourigan ordered the delay to give Deputy Dist. Atty. Todd D. Rubenstein time to respond in writing to defense allegations that he committed misconduct when he made the arguments at a trial for the Oct. 29, 1995, shooting death of Willie Yen.
Rubenstein has denied any wrongdoing.
In March, separate juries convicted both John Patrick Winkelman and Stephen Edmond Davis of murder--after Rubenstein had argued first to the Winkelman jury that Winkelman was the gunman, then argued the next day to the Davis jury that Davis fired the fatal shot.
Yen was fatally wounded by one shot to the back. Ballistics tests were inconclusive.
Winkelman, 21, and Davis, 20, each face a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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