Killing suspect faces trial

<p>Prosecutors said Friday they will not seek the death penalty against a Sonoma County man facing trial on charges he murdered a Rohnert Park guitar maker for financial gain.</p><p>The maximum sentence defendant Joshua Begley, 28, could receive if convicted of killing Taku Sakashita in February is life in prison without parole, prosecutor Bob Waner said.</p><p>Special circumstances alleged against Begley made the case death-penalty eligible but prosecutors decided not to seek it.</p><p>“It's a discretionary power that is reserved for the worst of the worst,” Waner said.</p><p>Death penalty cases are rare in Sonoma County. Convicted cop-killer Robert Scully was the last person sent to Death Row in 1997. Richard Allen Davis was sentenced to death in 1996 for killing 12-year-old Polly Klaas of Petaluma.</p><p>Begley, who has had repeated run-ins with police over the past decade, is accused of stabbing to death the 43-year-old luthier on Feb. 11 during the commission of a robbery.</p><p>At his preliminary hearing, witnesses put Begley near Sakashita's Martin Avenue workshop around the time of the killing and identified a knife and gloves they said belonged to Begley. </p><p>Prosecutors said he planned the killing and tried to cover it up. A trial was set for April 23.</p>