Convicted Throat-Slitter To Get Retrial in Long Beach

A state appeals court panel has vacated a man's 433-year-to-life prison sentence for attacking a half-dozen women in the Long Beach area, including two who survived having their throats slit. The three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal on Wednesday reversed findings that Charles Juan Proctor's Nevada conviction for attempted sexual assault was a strike and a prior serious felony, ordering the case to be sent back to Long Beach Superior Court for a retrial on those two allegations.

The appellate court justices also found that Proctor should get a new sentencing hearing. The homeless man was convicted in August 2010 of 22 counts, including attempted murder, mayhem, robbery, kidnapping for robbery, false imprisonment, burglary and assault with a deadly weapon. Proctor preyed on women who were alone -- the majority were shop owners who were attacked at their places of business and the others were store employees. His assaults began in February 2008 and ended in May 2008. Proctor was dubbed "the box cutter" by police because of he used that tool in his attacks, according to TV  station KTLA.

Among the attacks was one in which a woman suffered a four-inch wound to the neck and stab wounds to her face. Then just a day later, a second victim suffered a quarter-inch-wide wound to her neck.

Proctor was linked to the crimes in downtown Long Beach and Hawaiian Gardens by DNA evidence, fingerprints, eyewitness identification and surveillance video footage, Deputy District Attorney Carol Rose said after Proctor's August 2010 sentencing.

Proctor claimed that his Nevada conviction in a similar attack was not a strike because his conviction there came after the attacks for which he was charged in Long Beach. The court found that there was, in fact, insufficient evidence that Proctor's Nevada conviction was a strike.

--City News Service contributed.