Supreme Court rejects Bellflower murder appeal

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to review the case against a former Long Beach School District official convicted last year in the brutal murder of his stepmother at her Bellflower home.
Joseph Ronald Schessler was convicted in June of 2008 of first-degree murder in the Nov. 17, 1989, slaying of Rosemary Schessler.
Rosemary was was shot in the back of her head and also stabbed in the neck and in the back inside the Bellflower duplex she shared with her husband, George Schessler.
Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegation that Rosemary's murder was carried out by her stepson and his father, now dead, for financial gain.
Schessler was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The convicted killer was prosecuted for the murder after telling his wife and a longtime female friend that he and his father -- who died in 2003 -- were involved in a murder- for-hire plot to have his stepmother killed.
Police cracked the cold case by having Schessler's friend wear a wire and record Schessler as he spoke about the murder plot.
The former vice president of the California School Employees Association told his wife that he promised never to tell anyone about the plot while his
father was alive, but that he no longer needed to keep the secret.
Both his wife, who filed for divorce in 2007, and his friend testified against him in a trial that lasted only a few hours.