Tehachapi News

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David Bruce Rosenberg was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison on June 18 for a shooting death his supporters described as “a dreadfully tragic accident.”
However, the family of the victim, Michelle Cross, said her death was the result of choices Rosenberg made, including bringing a loaded gun to a Tehachapi ranch.
Kern County Superior Court Judge Michael Bush acknowledged 17 letters of support for the 39-year-old defendant. He said the law left him no choice except for the sentence he imposed.
A jury convicted Rosenberg of second-degree murder in the Sept. 19 death of Cross who was shot in the side as she sat in a car with another man.
Prosecution witnesses testified Rosenberg hit his friend Will Logan in the face with the gun, which accidentally went off. The .22-caliber bullet entered the side of the 36-year-old Cross and penetrated her vital organs, killing her.
Defense attorney James Coker asked for a new trial because he felt the jury, which chose the lowest crime it had before it, should have been given the option of involuntary manslaughter. That’s punishable by up to four years in prison.
He noted the jury didn’t even find that Rosenberg used a gun, which could have added 10 years to the prison term. Coker suggested this contradiction of the evidence was to give Rosenberg a break.
The judge rejected that motion saying the facts didn’t fit involuntary manslaughter. The law defines that as an accidental killing “due to negligence during a lawful act or an unlawful act not amounting to a felony.” Assaulting someone with a gun is generally a felony.
The victim’s aunt, Elsa Waters, said Cross didn’t make the best choices in her life, but now she doesn’t have the chance to turn her life around. Rosenberg was at fault for choosing to bring a gun to the scene, Waters said.
Rosenberg’s criminal record includes nine convictions for drug and minor offenses between 1987 and 2003. But evidence at trial was that his dispute was over two stolen laptop computers that Rosenberg believed Logan took from him.
His supporters include Monica Haskell, whose five children call Rosenberg their father. She praised him for his devotion to the children that he met during her “horrific divorce” in 1999.
She credits him with her recovery from a divorce that included regular calls to police and other protective agencies.
Haskell’s mother, Glennis, wrote that Rosenberg has become “a beloved, valued and integral member of our family.”
She added, “David has shed many tears for her (Cross) and her family’s loss and he prays for them.
“He was horror struck the second he realized she had been injured and continues to suffer true anguish.”