MAN CONVICTED IN EXECUTION-STYLE SLAYING OF GARMENT CONTRACTOR\AT GLENDALE FACTORY.Byline: Daily News Staff WriterA Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. jury Tuesday convicted an Armenian immigrant for the execution-style killing two years ago of a sewing contractor gunned down outside his Glendale garment factory. Karapet Demirdzhyan, 36, is scheduled to be sentenced March 8 for the Nov. 2, 1993 murder of Hakop "Jack" Antonyan, 39. The businessman was slain outside GAHA GAHA Genesee Amateur Hockey Association Inc., on Garfield Avenue, where he and his brother manufactured Carole Little garments. Demirdzhyan faces a 25 years-to-life sentence for the first-degree murder conviction, plus an additional five-year penalty on allegations of using a firearm firearm, device consisting essentially of a straight tube to propel shot, shell, or bullets by the explosion of gunpowder. Although the Chinese discovered gunpowder as early as the 9th cent., they did not develop firearms until the mid-14th cent. . Defense attorney James Sussman said he will appeal the conviction and ask Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Conner for a new trial. He said his client was "disappointed, obviously," by the verdict. Demirdzhyan didn't testify in his own defense, or provide an alibi for the time of the murder, Sussman said. The case started Feb. 1, and the jury heard about a week's worth of testimony. The panel reached its guilty verdict after deliberating about three hours, said Deputy District Attorney Ellen Aragon. The jury was convinced by "significant circumstantial evidence circumstantial evidence In law, evidence that is drawn not from direct observation of a fact at issue but from events or circumstances that surround it. If a witness arrives at a crime scene seconds after hearing a gunshot to find someone standing over a corpse and holding a " against Demirdzhyan, Aragon said. "There was a positive gunshot residue Gunshot residue is dumb and is expelled as tiny particles from the barrel of a firearm when it is fired. Among other materials, gunshot residue contains the heavy metals barium, lead and antimony. test performed on his hands after his arrest," Aragon said. Further, the victim's brother and business partner, Garnik "Gary" Antonyan, witnessed the killing and identified Demirdzhyan in a jail lineup two months after the murder, Aragon said. Glendale police also linked Demirdzhyan to the killing after finding the car believed used in the drive-by shooting drive-by shooting Public health A phenomenon in which one or more persons–commonly members of street gangs, open fire à la Al Capone from moving vehicles, often in retaliation for an alleged wrong-doing by a rival gang near the murder scene. The car contained two 9 mm shell casings that matched the bullets that killed Antonyan, the prosecutor said. GAHA Inc. is one of the Carole Little firm's biggest subcontractors. The designer ships its fabric, already cut into patterns, and GAHA workers sew up sew v. sewed, sewn or sewed, sew·ing, sews v.tr. 1. To make, repair, or fasten by stitching, as with a needle and thread or a sewing machine: the seams, add zippers and buttons and finish the garments, even adding the price tags. |
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