In an unpublished Nov. 4 opinion, the Court of Appeals has upheld the sentence for a man convicted of killing a Pontiac couple when he was 17 years old.
Jordan Garcia-Tinoco, 23, is serving 38-60 years for the murders of Cahla Richarson, 23, and Justin Flores, 34, convicted at the conclusion of a jury trial in Oakland County Circuit Court.
The two were shot to death on Jan. 13, 2018 while reportedly being robbed of marijuana in their home on Robinwood Street in Pontiac. Co-defendants Austin Ryan Cooper, now 28, and Giovanni McCaa, now 24, pleaded no contest to charges and drew lighter sentences.
In his appeal, Garcia-Tinoco claimed it wasn’t proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he was at the scene and committed the murders; he also claimed his sentencing was disproportionate. The COA found the claims to be invalid.
Among the evidence the COA noted in its decision was trial testimony from an Oakland County Sheriff’s deputy who said Garcia-Tinoco admitted he “shot those two people,” as well as testimony from McCaa and others implicating him. Garcia-Tinoco was also linked to a 45-caliber handgun believed to have been used in the murders, which investigators later found hidden in a toilet tank.
Garcia-Tinoco also claimed his sentence was disproportionate, citing his age at the time and the lower sentences of his Cooper, who is serving 25-60 years for second-degree murder. The appeals court judges determined the sentencing judge sufficiently and “explicitly considered Garcia-Tinoco’s mental capacity, education, and sophistication…addressed his relative youth indirectly in the context of his pretrial and presentence incarceration.”
Further, the COA stated, “the evidence at trial overwhelmingly placed the gun that killed Flores and Richardson in Garcia-Tinoco’s hand, not Cooper’s. Second, Cooper’s sentence was the result of a plea agreement.” Also, “the trial court is not required to consider the sentence of a codefendant” during a defendant’s sentencing.”
Garcia-Tinoco’s earliest release date is Jan. 13, 2058, and Cooper’s is Jan. 13, 2045. McCaa’s earliest release date was Oct. 13, and he remains locked up in the Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer.
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