‘84 Execution-Style Slaying : N. Hollywood Man Guilty in Death

A North Hollywood man was convicted of murder and kidnaping Monday in the 1984 execution-style slaying of a man described by prosecutors as a fellow drug dealer.

After a three-month trial and four days of deliberation, a Van Nuys Superior Court jury found Timothy Patrick Hoban, 33, guilty in the shooting death of Jon Cassanelli, 28, of North Hollywood.

Hoban and an accomplice killed Cassanelli in a dispute about drugs and possibly about the victim’s girlfriend, who became the prosecution’s chief witness, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephen A. Baron.

The girlfriend, Deborah Stalder, testified that she saw Hoban fire a single shot at the victim from a .41-caliber revolver after he and Steven Zimmer had taken Cassanelli and her to a remote area near Kanan Road in Agoura on Jan. 15, 1984. Stalder told the jury she later persuaded Hoban not to kill her as well.

Zimmer, 39, of North Hollywood, in 1985 was convicted of murder and kidnaping in the case and is serving a state prison sentence of 32 years to life.

Hoban, Zimmer, Cassanelli and Stalder were drug dealers in the San Fernando Valley at the time of the killing, Baron said. Hoban and Zimmer plotted to kill Cassanelli because Hoban was upset about the victim’s non-payment of a $1,500 debt for cocaine, Baron said.

Hoban also was angered to learn that Cassanelli was raiding Hoban’s cocaine “stash” and was replacing the stolen cocaine with baking soda, the prosecutor said.

Stalder, 28, might have been spared because Hoban “had a thing for her,” Baron said in an interview. “Part of it was, if he could get rid of Cassanelli, he could get Stalder.”

Cassanelli was shot once in the back of the head. His naked body was found by beach-goers on Jan. 29, 1984, and the bullet removed from it was shown to have been fired from the handgun recovered from Hoban’s safe-deposit box, Baron said.

A main point of contention during the trial was when the victim was killed. Defense lawyer Richard Walton presented expert testimony that the body’s state of decomposition showed Cassanelli was killed about 12 days after Stalder said the killing took place. But Baron maintained that cold weather at the time slowed the decomposition of the body.

Stalder testified under a grant of immunity from prosecution.

Hoban and Zimmer earlier were facing the death penalty and additional charges of killing two other suspected drug dealers. But two separate juries acquitted Zimmer of the two additional murder charges and voted against the death penalty for him. Because of that, prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty against Hoban and dropped the other two murder charges against him, Baron said.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Kathryne A. Stoltz scheduled sentencing for June 6. Hoban faces a maximum term of 35 years to life in prison.