By Lookout Staff

March 24, 2021 -- The California Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to review a case against an ex-convict who shot and wounded a Santa Monica police officer in 2010.

The decision to turn down the defense's request came two months after an Appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing for Dante Glenn Leverette, who was sentenced in 2018 to 125 years to life in prison.

The sentencing came after a jury found Leverette guilty of attempting to murder the three officers on the scene of a DUI traffic stop on May 18, 2010 in Ocean Park ("Ex-Convict Sentenced to Life in Santa Monica Officer's Shooting," August 17, 2018).

In January, the 2nd District Court of Appeal reversed Leverette’s conviction on two of the three attempted murder charges finding there was “no evidence Leverette intended to kill" the two other officers.

“Leverette had the means and present ability to violently injure all three officers," the court wrote in a 27-page decision.

"He had his semiautomatic firearm out and was shooting in the general direction of the officers, and specifically shot at one of them.

“Although there was no substantial evidence he shot at more than one officer, he certainly had the present ability to do so,” the three-judge panel wrote.

Leverette, who was 32 at the time of the shooting, will be sentenced for the remaining attempted murder charge, along with three counts of assault with a firearm on a police officer and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon.

A Los Angeles resident with two prior convictions, Leverette was the passenger in a vehicle pulled over at approximately 1:40 a.m. on May 18, 2010 due to suspicion of a drunk driver at the wheel, police said. The officer called for backup.

While the driver received a field sobriety test, Leverette jumped out of the vehicle and shot at the officers, striking a 16-year veteran of the force in the groin area, police said at the time of the incident.

The officers returned fire, and the suspect fled, police said. A perimeter of the area was set up, and the SMPD’s S.W.A.T. Team and nine police K-9s were called in to assist with the search.

Officers from the City of Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Inglewood, El Segundo, Gardena and California Highway Patrol also responded.

After searching for more than three hours, Leverette was located at approximately 5:10 a.m. in an alley adjacent to where the initial traffic stop occurred, SMPD officials said. He confronted the officers and was shot multiple times.

Leverette was taken to a local hospital for non-life threatening injuries from the K-9 contact and wounds received from the gunshots.

Leverette's defense attorney Edmont Barrett, argued that the injured officer appeared to have been shot "by one of his own men."