Local News in Brief : Van Driver Sentenced for Running Over Man
A homeless man was sentenced Friday to 16 years to life in prison in the death of a man run over by a van during an altercation.
Arthur Hannah, 46, was convicted in September of second-degree murder. He returned to San Fernando Superior Court for sentencing after a 90-day psychiatric evaluation in which he was found fit for state prison.
Commissioner Irwin Garfinkle sentenced Hannah to the maximum 15 years to life for the murder charge plus an extra year for using a vehicle in the attack.
During his trial, witnesses said Hannah argued with a group of men in a parking lot at Glenoaks Boulevard and Paxton Street in Pacoima in April, 1985, and then ran over the victim, Jorge Rivera Pena, with his van.
Hannah, who authorities said lived in his van in Pacoima, told a probation officer that one of the men threatened him with a knife and that he then jumped in his van and drove off. He said he didn’t know he hit anyone.
Others in the group testified, however, that Hannah ran Pena down repeatedly, even backing up over him.
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