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Sentence Delayed for Glendale Man in Father’s Death

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The sentencing of a young Glendale man found guilty in December of voluntary manslaughter for killing his father was delayed Friday after his attorneys requested time for a psychologist to examine him.

A Superior Court judge granted the attorney, Marcia A. Morrissey, until Feb. 17 to hire a psychologist to determine whether further incarceration of Arnel Salvatierra, 20, is needed. Salvatierra was 17 when he was charged in the January, 1986, shooting death of his father, Oscar.

Under California law, a minor who is convicted in adult court must be examined by a diagnostic expert approved by the court before he can be sentenced to prison.

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Salvatierra has been free on his own recognizance since Dec. 30, when a Pasadena Superior Court jury found him guilty of the lesser of two charges in the shooting. He was found not guilty of first-degree murder.

Since his trial, Salvatierra’s attorneys said, he has enrolled in school and found a part-time job. They said they will ask Pasadena Superior Court Judge Gilbert C. Alston to release Salvatierra on probation.

Oscar Salvatierra’s slaying briefly attracted attention when it was disclosed that on the day before his death he had received a written death threat because the Filipino newspaper he worked for had been critical of then-President Ferdinand Marcos. It was later disclosed that the son had made the threat.

During his three-week trial, Arnel Salvatierra testified that his father had abused him and admitted that he planned his father’s killing for weeks before shooting him in the head while he was sleeping in the family’s north Glendale home.

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