Napa -- A California Youth Authority parolee was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for killing a gay Catholic priest in his Napa home last year. Napa County Superior Court Judge Wes Walker denied a defense request Thursday to retry the case of James Jennings, 23, convicted of the August 1993 second-degree murder of the Rev. Ronald Maupin.
According to trial testimony, Jennings met Maupin outside a San Francisco gay bar and agreed to go home with him to smoke marijuana. Maupin said he would trade a sex act for the marijuana.
When Maupin wanted to engage in another act, according to defense testimony, Jennings reacted angrily, stabbing Maupin six times, twice in the heart.