PALMDALE MAN SENTENCED TO 3 YEARS FOR GRUESOME STABBING DEATH.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - A Palmdale man facing his third set of charges in the gruesome stabbing death of an alleged marijuana distributor was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison after pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter.

Joseph Bruce Hanson, 36, was charged originally with first degree murder in the killing of 21-year-old Javier Gomez Rodriguez, whose burned body was found in June 1998 beneath railroad tracks that run behind a rock quarry north of Avenue T.

``A review of the evidence indicates that voluntary manslaughter is the charge which most accurately describes the defendant's conduct,'' Deputy District Attorney John Portillo said. ``They were involved in a marijuana transaction, which went sour. They got into a fight. The last thing our witness saw was them physically fighting and neither of them was armed at time. (The witness) left and one ended up dead. There is an absence of evidence of premeditation.''

Hanson's attorney, Michael Flanagan, said his client would have faced more than 30 years in prison if he had gone to trial for murder and lost.

``I told my client I had a 60 to 70 percent chance of winning the case in trial, but if I lose the case, he would have been convicted of murder,'' Flanagan said. ``By taking the deal today, he's got 20 more months to serve. You can't chance 30 years, even though you got a pretty good chance of winning. We decided not to gamble.''

Hanson has already served 235 days in jail, Flanagan said.

Portillo said there were ``bits and pieces of evidence that added up to a murder case,'' but testimony at the second preliminary hearing made the killing appear to be more of a voluntary manslaughter.

Prosecutors first dismissed the case against Hanson in September 1998, saying they weren't ready to do the preliminary hearing because the scientific evidence needed wasn't analyzed in time.

The case was refiled when results of DNA tests showed that blood found in the garage of a Palmdale house where the defendant was living was that of the victim.

After the second filing, Antelope Municipal Court Judge Steven Ogden dismissed the charges following a September 1999 preliminary hearing, saying the prosecution's key witness, Hanson's former roommate Jason Brock, was not credible.

Brock testified that he saw a fight between the defendant and the victim, and the defendant later asked him to help dispose of a body.

When prosecutors filed the case a third time, Flanagan moved to dismiss the charges under a state law, but Lancaster Judge Pamela Rogers denied his motion.

State law says prosecutors can file the same charges only twice against a defendant, unless one of the first two attempts is found to be excusable neglect.

Flanagan unsuccessfully appealed Rogers ruling to higher courts, prosecutors said.

The victim had been stabbed as many as 16 times in the neck and chest. Police said his body was set on fire after he died, with gasoline or some other flammable liquid poured on him.

Hanson was identified as a suspect after homicide investigators ran a photo of the victim in local newspapers and received calls from people who provided the names of his associates.

Authorities said Rodriguez was a marijuana wholesaler and Hanson was one of the low-level dealers he supplied.