By Howard Mintz
hmintz@mercurynews.com
Posted: 10/27/2009 02:13:25 PM PDT
Updated: 10/27/2009 02:47:27 PM PDT
A state appeals court today upheld the conviction and prison sentence of a Santa Clara man who killed his girlfriend and then dismembered her body in June 2005.
In a unanimous decision, the San Jose-based 6th District Court of Appeal rejected the legal arguments of Alexandre Hochstraser, a former admissions and records assistant for De Anza College's international students program.
A Santa Clara County jury found Hochstraser, 49, guilty of the fatal beating death of his 43-year-old girlfriend, Dolores Gonzales, as she slept in their Santa Clara apartment.
Hochstraser dismembered the body, placed it in bags and inside plastic bins that were in the back seat and trunk of his car when police responded to concerns that Gonzales was missing.
The appeals court rejected arguments that police discovered the woman's body without obtaining a search warrant. Hochstraser is serving a 25-years-to-life prison term.
Dolores "Dee" Gonzales worked in the human relations department at Mission College. She and Hochstraser had a son, who was 2 years old and staying overnight with Hochstraser's mother the day of the murder.
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