Judge Orders Probation for Man Who Killed Father

A 28-year-old Covina man who admitted shooting his father to death in the Veterans Administration hospital in Sepulveda, saying God had told him to prevent his father from carrying out a death threat against his mother, was sentenced Monday to five years’ probation.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge James A. Albracht, who had found Christopher Michael Mazurek guilty of voluntary manslaughter in a non-jury trial, granted him probation, saying he could see no purpose in sending Mazurek to prison.

After the hearing, Albracht called the case an “almost Shakespearean conflict of love and hate between father and son.”

During a three-day trial in September, Mazurek testified that he was responding to what he thought was a command from God on Oct. 20, 1984, when he took his roommate’s gun, drove to the hospital and shot the elder Mazurek in his room.

Mother Warned of Threat

Mazurek, then a Los Angeles County firefighter, said his mother called him the night before the shooting and said his father was being released from the hospital and had threatened to kill her.

Testimony and documents introduced in evidence by the defense established that Mazurek’s father, Walter C. Mazurek, 54, had a long history of mental illness and for 30 years had regularly beat and threatened his wife, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Mazurek testified that, from 1963 to 1977, police were summoned to the couple’s Woodland Hills home more than 100 times by relatives or neighbors who feared that her husband was out of control.

According to court records, the senior Mazurek had been committed to the mental ward of the Veterans Administration hospital after an altercation with a police officer, but was scheduled to be released Oct. 21, 1984.

Elizabeth Mazurek testified that her husband called and threatened to kill her, bury her body in the backyard and burn the house.

‘Devil Must Be Stopped’

Mazurek maintained that mental stress drove him out of his senses. He said he prayed to God for guidance and God responded, “The devil must be stopped and you must do it.”

He said he no longer believes that God commanded him to kill his father.

Defense attorney Godfrey Isaac called the killing a tragedy and urged Albracht not to add a second tragedy by sentencing Mazurek to prison.

In an unusual recommendation, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert L. Cohen said he favored probation. Cohen said he did not expect Mazurek to commit more crimes.

A probation officer, however, recommended that Mazurek be committed to state prison for psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he should be imprisoned. Fred B. Lewis said he believes the defendant suffers from “underlying problems” that were strong enough to allow Mazurek “to respond as he did.”

Two friends wrote letters to the court praising Mazurek’s character and Los Angeles County Fire Department Battalion Chief Ronald W. Jones wrote that Mazurek had shown “exemplary conduct at all times” on the job.

Mazurek was suspended from his job pending resolution of the case.

Civilian Job Offered

Jones testified Monday that Mazurek cannot be a firefighter while on probation but that the Fire Department will offer him a civilian job and then restore him to his previous rank when he becomes eligible. Mazurek could have been sentenced to a maximum 13 years in prison.

After the hearing, Albracht said he had considered Elizabeth Mazurek’s predicament after her efforts to have her husband confined to the hospital failed.

“How do you get away from a situation like this?” Albracht asked. “You’d almost have to sell your house and sneak away.”

Isaac had argued that the killing was justifiable homicide, but the defense attorney said he was pleased with the outcome.

“I think it’s an example of the judicial system working in a very positive and constructive way, both for the defendant and for society,” Isaac said.