Deal Will Cut Short Israeli’s Term in Deaths

An Israeli whose second-degree murder and mutilation convictions in the 1979 dismemberment slayings of a North Hollywood couple were recently reversed by the state Court of Appeal agreed Thursday to a plea bargain under which he can be freed from state prison in January, 1987.

Joseph Zakaria, 33, pleaded guilty before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert R. Devich to two counts of voluntary manslaughter and two counts of mutilation in the gruesome deaths of Esther Ruven, 22, and her husband, Eli, 23, in the downtown Bonaventure Hotel.

Including credit for time served, Zakaria will be freed from San Quentin Prison just before his son’s bar mitzvah, defense attorney Bradley Brunon said.

The arrangement was struck, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Jorgensen explained, because of “serious problems” faced by the prosecution in locating and winning the cooperation of witnesses for a retrial.

“This crime occurred six years ago,” Jorgensen said. “Most of the witnesses have been involved in activities of the sort that would make it difficult to locate them.”

Zakaria, whom Devich sentenced to 10 years and 8 months in prison, minus the credit for time served, was one of three men convicted in the slayings, which prosecutors claimed occurred Oct. 7, 1979, after a falling out between the parties concerning a cocaine-selling operation.

Evidence indicated that the Ruvens, lured to the hotel, were shot as they entered Room 2419 and that their bodies were subsequently hacked to pieces with a meat cleaver and knives. The body parts, wrapped in plastic, were carried out in luggage and dumped in trash bins in the San Fernando Valley.

Co-defendant Yehuda Avital, 32, is serving a life sentence without possibility of parole for the first-degree murder of Esther Ruven and the second-degree murder of her husband. Co-defendant Eliahu Komerchero, 34, who testified against Zakaria and Avital, has already served a four-year sentence after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

Rented Room

Zakaria, who prosecutors said aided in the slayings by renting the hotel room, purchasing the luggage and helping carry out and disposing of the dismembered bodies, had been serving a prison term of 21 years to life when the 2nd District Court of Appeal issued its reversal.

In its March ruling, the appellate court pointed out that jury instructions concerning aiding and abetting a crime were changed by the state Supreme Court after Zakaria’s 1981 trial. The change made it mandatory that defendants act with specific intent to commit a crime in order to be convicted.

The Court of Appeal also cited the prosecutors’ delay in giving defense attorneys a copy of Zakaria’s statement placing him in the hotel room during the murders.

The appellate court upheld Zakaria’s conviction for conspiracy to possess and sell cocaine.

Jury Instructions

After Thursday’s court session, Jorgensen criticized the ruling, saying: “The jury instructions given were lawful at the time and the California Supreme Court later declared them faulty. As a result, we have given a release date of Jan. 7, 1987, to a defendant who had previously been sentenced to (more than 21 years).”

Brunon, on the other hand, expressed confidence that his client would have been acquitted in a retrial if it were free of similar judicial errors.

“He has steadfastly denied he participated or knew there would be killings,” Brunon said. “He pleaded guilty because it was in his best interest to do so.

“There’s no percentage in trying this case,” Brunon said. “We would not finish with a trial until January, 1987. . . . His son turns 13 that month and he wants to attend the bar mitzvah.”

Zakaria, who could have faced a life prison sentence if convicted in a retrial, will be subject to deportation upon his release from prison, authorities said.