Stabber sentenced

A Huntington Beach man convicted of stabbing his roommate to death on Halloween in 2005 was sentenced to 26 years to life Friday.

Vladimir Benitez, 28, was convicted of first-degree murder last month for stabbing roommate Enrique Martinez, who was 32, a few days after being told he could no longer stay there.

The conviction came after a failed attempt at an insanity plea.

David Wooden, the attorney who defended Benitez, had pointed to statements by Benitez that his landlady had used witchcraft on him, as well as glaring inconsistencies in his testimony, as evidence that he wasn’t sane. While acknowledging Benitez had stabbed Martinez, Wooden said he was irrationally trying to defend himself against an imagined threat.

But prosecutor Sonia Balleste responded that Benitez knew what he was doing and showed fear of arrest for his crimes after the fact.

Ultimately a jury found Benitez guilty of murder, as well as legally sane.