Youth Charged in Teen-Club Killing Pleads Not Guilty

A 15-year-old Canoga Park youth Friday entered a plea of not guilty in the Aug. 17 shooting death of a Hollywood teen-ager outside a Van Nuys teen club.

Christopher D. Comete, accused of killing Mark Miller, 15, sat sobbing in Sylmar Juvenile Court as his public defender, William Weilbacher, entered the not-guilty plea. Commissioner Jack J. Gold set a Sept. 13 trial date before Juvenile Court Judge Burton S. Katz.

Comete will be confined in Sylmar Juvenile Hall without bail pending an Aug. 29 hearing to determine whether he should be released to the custody of his parents.

Comete’s father, himself crying, rubbed his son’s shoulders, and the youth’s stepmother, Ann Gaspari, sat nearby in the courtroom, silently weeping during the short court proceeding. Karen Miller, the victim’s mother, was clear-eyed.

Wednesday, Karen Miller and Gaspari tearfully embraced outside the courtroom after an arraignment hearing was postponed so that a Vietnamese interpreter could be present for Comete’s father. Deputy Dist. Atty. Cesar Sarmiento said the interpreter was retained to translate technical jargon, if necessary.

Miller said Friday that she hugged Gaspari after the Wednesday hearing because “she’s lost her son, too. Mine died . . . but I feel we lost them both in one horrible night. She was looking at me with the most tormented eyes I’ve ever seen.”

Miller said sadly: “It’s finally coming home to me that my son is not coming home.” But, she added, “I can’t go through the rest of my life with anger and bearing grudges. Someone has to set an example.”

Tony Nguyen, 21, also of Canoga Park, Wednesday pleaded not guilty to a charge of being an accessory to murder after the fact in Miller’s death. He is being held in County Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail.