Defense Says Client Intoxicated by Love

The lawyer defending a North Hollywood man charged with shooting his father-in-law to death said Thursday that his client went on a rampage at the home of his wife’s parents because he was “intoxicated with his love for his wife.”

Defense attorney Robert Sheahen contended at the start of the murder trial for Armik Markarian, 34, that the accused man shot his father-in-law, Orlando Lazabal, in self-defense as Lazabal fired two rounds from a handgun at him.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Steve Ogden told San Fernando Superior Court jurors that Markarian, a native of Tehran, confronted Lazabal on Sept. 10, 1984, after he already had stormed into the house firing a hail of bullets, one of which struck his wife, Maria, in the hand.

Markarian, who is charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder, “literally shot and barged and broke his way into the house” where his estranged wife was living with her parents, Ogden said.

After shooting Lazabal, Maria Markarian testified, Markarian attacked his mother-in-law, Maria Lazabal, knocking out several of her teeth, and beat his wife with the butt of his rifle as she tried to call paramedics to aid her father.

Maria Markarian, 24, tearfully testified that her marriage to Markarian deteriorated rapidly after their wedding in October, 1982. Three months into the marriage, she took her daughter from a previous marriage, Veronica, now 4, and moved back in with her parents, she testified.

The couple remained separated for all but two months before the shooting, Maria Markarian testified. On Sept. 9, she said, Markarian went to the house and told her that he wanted to take her with him to a new home in Fresno.

“He said he was going to take me with him, dead or alive,” she told jurors.

Sheahen said he would prove that Markarian was drunk when he broke into the Lazabal home and did not intend to kill the father.

Maria Markarian is expected to conclude her testimony today.