Trial Ordered in Slaying of Teen Girl’s Boyfriend

In a case that centers on whether a disapproving father was acting out of dislike for his teen-age stepdaughter’s boyfriend or fear that his home was being ransacked, a Woodland Hills man was ordered Thursday to stand trial for murder.

Peter Atanasov, 37, is accused of deliberately shooting his stepdaughter’s boyfriend, Dane Kimball, 18, after finding the teen-ager in his house about 9 p.m. on June 24 and chasing him across the street.

Kimball’s body was found by a jogger the next morning in the bushes along the 4600 block of Canoga Avenue.

Two witnesses testified during Thursday’s preliminary hearing in Van Nuys Municipal Court that Atanasov twice had threatened to kill Kimball unless he stopped seeing Atanasov’s stepdaughter, Vanessa Jeffery, 15. The second threat came about a month before the killing, a friend of the victim testified.

Judge Robert Wallerstein ruled at the conclusion of the hearing that the prosecution had presented sufficient evidence to hold Atanasov for trial on the murder charge. Although the judge did not specify the degree of murder, prosecutors acknowledged that they lack evidence of premeditation and said they expect to argue for a second-degree murder conviction at the trial.

Calls Killing Justifiable

Defense attorney Mitchell W. Egers argued to the judge that the killing was justifiable because Atanasov thought he was firing at a fleeing burglar.

In the darkness and the heat of the moment, Atanasov did not recognize the person running from his home, Egers argued. But, even if he had, Egers said, Atanasov would still have been acting within the bounds of the law if he believed the youth to be fleeing the scene of a burglary.

Atanasov fired several shots wildly into the bushes along the street and did not realize he had hit the youth until the body was discovered the next day, witnesses testified. Police, who were summoned that night by Mrs. Atanasov to investigate the burglary report, searched the neighborhood but failed to discover either a suspect or the body.

In support of the defense theory that Kimball had broken into the house to steal, Egers presented police evidence that a black bra and a gold wedding band were found in the youth’s pocket after his death. Atanasov’s wife, Bonita, 32, testified that the two items belonged to her.

However, the prosecution called another witness, 17-year-old Amy Ticknor, who claimed that the bra was hers and that she had left it in a car belonging to a friend of Kimball shortly before his death.

Stepdaughter Testifies

Also called by Deputy Dist. Atty. Larry Diamond was the stepdaughter, Vanessa Jeffery, who testified that Kimball attempted to give her the wedding ring as a gift several days before the killing but that she refused, recognizing it as her mother’s. If Kimball did take the ring without permission, Diamond said, it was not taken on the night of the shooting.

Bonita Atanasov testified that she had instructed her daughter to stop seeing Kimball after learning that he had sneaked into the home and slept overnight on several occasions. However, she said her husband, a self-employed carpenter, was “concerned with his work” and did not get involved in the dispute over her daughter’s boyfriend.

Mrs. Atanasov said she and her husband arrived home June 24 and noticed a figure carrying a flashlight moving through their house. Mrs. Atanasov said she ran into the home through the back door to confront the suspected burglar while her husband went to the front yard and retrieved a pistol from his truck.

Mrs. Atanasov said she chased the individual out the front door and later saw her husband shooting into bushes across the street.

Theory Advanced

Diamond argued that Atanasov would have recognized Kimball, who had bright red hair, as he ran past him in front of the house. The prosecution speculates that Kimball was inside the home to retrieve a jacket that the Jeffery girl was keeping for him in her closet.

Furthermore, Diamond questioned whether Mrs. Atanasov would have run into the home alone and unarmed unless she knew who was inside.

Even if Atanasov did think the youth was burglarizing the home, Diamond said, he stepped outside the bounds of the law by shooting someone who had stopped fleeing and was crouching in the brush.

“There is no law that permits anyone . . . to execute someone who’s hiding in bushes,” Diamond said.

Atanasov, who is free on $1,000 bail, is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 6 in Van Nuys Superior Court. If convicted of second-degree murder and the special allegation of use of a firearm, Atanasov could be sentenced to 17 years to life in state prison.