Sylmar Man Gets 11 Years in Prison for 1986 Slaying

A Sylmar man was sentenced to 11 years in prison Tuesday after eight charges were dropped and a murder charge was reduced to manslaughter in a plea bargain.

The charges against Walter Kevin Larkin, 30, stemmed from two incidents that occurred three days apart.

Larkin has been in jail since the May, 1986, killing of Modesto Miranda, a Mexican national. With time accumulated for good behavior, he has about eight years left to serve, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Janice L. Maurizi.

Larkin pleaded guilty May 17 to killing Miranda outside a Sun Valley house where he had gone to buy drugs. Larkin had held a gun to the head of another man, Asencion Beltran, and cocked the trigger, Los Angeles police said. A struggle ensued and the gun discharged, with one shot striking Beltran and another striking and killing Miranda, a bystander, police said.

Beltran wrested the gun from Larkin’s hands and fired a shot into his back as he ran away, a probation report said.

Larkin was originally charged with Modesto’s murder and the attempted murder of Beltran, as well as with robbery and possession of a firearm.

Charges of assault, battery, use of a deadly weapon, commercial burglary and attempted robbery, stemming from an April 27, 1986, attack on the owner of a 7-Eleven store, were dropped.

Police said Larkin demanded that the convenience store’s owner, Amarjit Hundal, hand over cash. When he was told that the money was locked in the safe, Larkin struck Hundal with his fists and with a bottle, police said. Hundal was treated at San Fernando Community Hospital for scratches on his right arm and a cut to his right eye and cheek.

Larkin was sentenced Tuesday by San Fernando Superior Court Judge Irwin H. Garfinkel.