Man Pleads Guilty in Killing of Friend
A Reseda man pleaded guilty Friday to voluntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a friend in December.
In a plea bargain with prosecutors, Sarup Singh, 27, admitted that he killed Surmukh Singh, 37, outside the victim’s Canoga Park home. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed to recommend that Singh receive a five-year prison sentence, Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrew W. Diamond said.
Although Singh originally was charged with murder, Diamond said his office agreed to reduce the charge to manslaughter because the shooting was the result of a heated argument and was not premeditated.
Singh is to be sentenced June 1 in Van Nuys Superior Court.
Authorities said the two men, who both had worked as attendants at a Chevron service station, began to argue during a party Dec. 1.
“They had been drinking, and they got into a physical altercation,” said Detective Philip Quartararo of the Los Angeles Police Department. “The defendant went home, got his gun and came back, and there was another altercation.”
It ended with the victim dead on the street from two gunshot wounds to his upper body, authorities said.
Singh is being held without bail.
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