Prosecutor Asks Livaditis Jury to Vote Death Penalty

Declaring that Steven Livaditis “has no remorse or regret for what he did,” the prosecutor Tuesday urged jurors to vote the death penalty for the man who has admitted guilt in three deaths resulting from last year’s bloody siege of an exclusive Beverly Hills jewelry store.

While Livaditis sat a few feet away in Santa Monica Superior Court and showed no emotion, Deputy Dist. Atty. Dona Bracke described an individual who, despite receiving loving care from his poor but close-knit family, turned toward a life of crime.

On June 23, 1986, the 23-year-old drifter walked into the Van Cleef & Arpels store on Rodeo Drive, touching off a 13 1/2-hour standoff that resulted in the deaths of two hostages in the store and the store manager, who was mistakenly slain by a sheriff’s marksman.

The six-woman, six-man jury has only two choices--the gas chamber or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In her closing argument, Bracke told jurors that Livaditis entered the store “prepared,” carrying a .357-Magnum handgun, ammunition and knives.

“He was mentally prepared for whatever might happen . . . ,” Bracke said. “This is a man who has no respect for the law . . . authority or other human beings. . . . He has no remorse or regret . . . . “

Several family members testified that Livaditis had been a “good, sensitive” child while growing up in a broken home in Brooklyn, N.Y., and later in Texas, but that he lacked direction and fell in with bad elements after moving to Las Vegas in 1982. A string of arrests followed, culminating in a February, 1986, jewelry store robbery in Las Vegas.

Livaditis’ attorney, Deputy Public Defender Michael H. Demby, decided not to put his client on the stand. “Basically, I thought we had covered everything,” he told a reporter. “It wasn’t necessary.”

Demby told jurors that “nothing excuses what happened” during the robbery and that Livaditis “has accepted the responsibility . . . “

“The family can’t understand why he did it,” Demby said. “There’s no justification. . . .” But even so, the defense lawyer said in summary, “life is important . . . (and) we have a harsh alternative in this case. Make Steven Livaditis spend the rest of his life in prison.”