TULARE, CA (KMJ) – A man from Lindsay is sentenced to life in prison for murder.
On Friday in Tulare County Superior Court, 30-year-old Joshua Stepp was sentenced for the 2012 murder of 19-year-old Michael Avalos at a house in Lindsay.
On the morning on September 14, 2012, Stepp was at his friend’s house in Lindsay when the victim visited the house.
The DA’s Office says Stepp believed Avalos had incriminating information against his friend, Strathmore gang member Eric Jimenez.
Stepp stabbed Avalos repeatedly, then his friend, Nathan Hunt, 28, helped put the body into Stepp’s car.
Stepp then drove to an orchard outside Lindsay and set the car on fire with the body inside.
Hunt was arrested later that day while Stepp fled to Missouri.
Law enforcement arrested Stepp on September 17, 2012, and extradited him back to Tulare County.
Hunt pleaded to voluntary manslaughter and other crimes in 2014 and is facing over 30 years.
A 2017 jury previously convicted Stepp of arson, but was unable to reach a unanimous decision on the charge of murder.
Stepp possesses a 2008 strike for attempted carjacking with a knife.
In April of 2018, Eric Jimenez was convicted of second-degree murder in Avalos’ killing and is currently on death row for robbing, killing, and burning another man in 2012.
On June 18, 2019, a jury convicted Stepp of second-degree murder with the special allegation of using a deadly weapon (knife).
Under current California law, Stepp will be eligible for parole after serving 46 years.
