The man convicted in the ambush killing of a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department at a Palmdale stoplight faces sentencing Thursday in the fourth-generation law enforcement officer's murder.

Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer, ??, was shot and killed Sept. 16, 2023 as he waited in his patrol SUV near the Palmdale Sheriff's Station. Clinkunbroomer had been engaged to be married four days earlier.

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Kevin Eduardo Cataneo Salazar, 32, is facing a life prison term without the possibility of parole for the shooting in the high desert community north of Los Angeles. He was convicted Aug. 24 of first-degree murder. Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegations of murder of a peace officer, lying in wait and firing from a vehicle, along with allegations that he personally used and discharged a .22-caliber revolver.

Special circumstances allegations can increase potential penalties at sentencing.

The panel also found that Salazar was sane at the time of the crime. He would have been sent to a state mental hospital for treatment if jurors had found that he was legally insane.

Defense attorney George Rosenstock is asking Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen to grant a new trial for the sanity portion of the case, writing in a court filing that the judge should independently weigh the evidence the jury heard and consider both sides, including

Prosecutors Michael Blake and David Ayvazian countered in their response that  the defendant proved that he suffered from serious mental illness, but that  he did not prove that he was legally insane at the moment he killed Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer. 

During the trial, prosecutors said Salazar had aspired to kill a law enforcement officers.

Family, friends and law enforcement professionals honored Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Clinkunbroomer was shot and killed in Palmdale while on patrol. Alex Rozier reports for the NBC4 News on Oct. 5, 2023.

Salazar, a Palmdale resident, entered a dual plea of not guilty a

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