Shot Another Driver From Truck : Motorist Gets 17 Years in Slaying

A 20-year-old Granada Hills man who admitted shooting and killing a motorist last year in Reseda was sentenced Thursday to 17 years in prison by a San Fernando Superior Court judge.

Kevin Young Cravens, who set off a police manhunt last week when he failed to appear for sentencing, pleaded guilty in January to one count of voluntary manslaughter and four counts of assault with a deadly weapon stemming from the shotgun death in March of Michael James Altoonian, 20, of Reseda. Cravens was arrested last Friday at a friend’s house in Granada Hills.

In imposing the maximum prison term, Judge Robert D. Fratianne told Cravens that “your crime involved a great deal of violence, cruelty, viciousness and callousness . . . and I hope you have time to contemplate that in prison.”

Victim’s Friends, Family Sob

Although Cravens sat motionless and expressionless as Fratianne read the sentence, several of Altoonian’s friends and family members quietly sobbed in the courtroom.

“The passage of time has not helped,” Altoonian’s mother, Arden, said before the sentencing.

“We are, all of us, losers,” she told about 20 friends and relatives at the court.

Altoonian, an apprentice electrician, was driving his pickup truck on Roscoe Boulevard near Vanalden Avenue on March 16 with four passengers when another pickup repeatedly cut across his path, Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth L. Barshop said.

Altoonian rolled down the window to yell at the other driver and was struck in the head by one of two shots fired by Cravens from the other truck, Barshop said. None of Altoonian’s passengers were injured.

Previous Scuffle

Some of Altoonian’s passengers said they had been in a fight with Cravens a week earlier at Malibu Grand Prix in Northridge, a video game center and race track for miniature cars, Barshop said. Altoonian was not involved in that scuffle and was “just an innocent driver,” Barshop said.

Prosecutors initially sought a murder conviction but agreed to reduce the charge to voluntary manslaughter when it was determined that Cravens was drunk and under the influence of marijuana at the time of the shooting.

Because Cravens was intoxicated, it would have been difficult to prove that he intended to kill the victim, which is a requirement for a murder conviction.

Cravens will be eligible for parole in 8 1/2 years.