Spurned Suitor Gets 12 Years for Shooting Dancer

A wealthy Santa Monica gas station owner was sentenced Monday to 12 years in prison for trying to kill his former girlfriend after she attempted to end their affair.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge David P. Yaffe also ordered Krikor (Koko) Chouchanian, 47, to pay $10,000 to the woman, Eiman (Amy) Rahal.

Chouchanian was convicted last month of attempted murder with special allegations for using a firearm and inflicting great bodily injury. The jury acquitted him of premeditation and assault with a deadly weapon.

The charges stem from a Jan. 23, 1987, attack on Rahal as she was driving from a North Hollywood fast-food restaurant to her apartment in Van Nuys. She testified that Chouchanian pulled his car beside hers, raised a handgun and fired one shot that took off the tip of her nose.

Rahal, 29, testified that the attack came after at least two other violent incidents during a stormy, 18-month relationship with Chouchanian that began after she started working as a Middle Eastern folk dancer at a nightclub he once owned in Hollywood.

In urging the judge to impose the maximum sentence of 14 years, deputy probation officer Tom LeValley wrote that “the defendant stalked the victim as an animal would its prey before he shot her.”

Rahal said she tried to end her relationship with Chouchanian when she discovered he was not separated from his wife as she said he had told her. She testified he refused to let her go, and started to follow and telephone her constantly, and threatened to kill her.

“He told me if he can’t have me, no one will,” Rahal testified.

Shortly thereafter, in April, 1986, Rahal said, he entered her apartment, beat her brutally and tried to suffocate her with a pillow. The attack was interrupted by a neighbor, authorities said.

Rahal also testified that, on Jan. 13, 1987, Chouchanian tried to push her out of a moving car in Garden Grove.

Still pending is a lawsuit Rahal filed against Chouchanian in January seeking $1 million in punitive damages for assault, emotional distress, negligence, mental anguish and physical pain.

The lawsuit also seeks unspecified damages for medical expenses and loss of earnings.

Chouchanian was described in the probation report as being worth more than $1 million.

Rahal said she has undergone two operations to reconstruct her nose and requires more treatment. Her attorney, Steven L. Martin, said she still fears for her life and has been unable to work.