Daniel Garcia denied hearing to reduce life sentence for 2008 Palm Springs murder

INDIO, Calif. (KESQ) - Daniel Garcia, one of the men convicted in the 2008 murder of Palm Springs art dealer Clifford Lambert, has been denied a hearing on a request to reduce his life sentence.

Check Out: Karen Devine goes in-depth on the Lambert Case in an exclusive report

Garcia appeared by video in court on Friday at the Larson Justice Center. He filed several motions, including one using the California Racial Justice Act to argue for a lighter sentence.

The judge denied those requests, including a motion to reduce a first-degree murder conviction.

The court did reduce one burglary conviction from first to second degree.

A separate hearing over a forensic laptop was continued until June 12.

Garcia was sentenced to life without parole last year. It came following a retrial of an original life sentence in 2012. Four other men were also charged and convicted in their retrials of the financially motivated murder. A fifth man, Kaushal Niroula, was killed in prison before his retrial was completed.