Jury Convicts 2 in Acid Throwing Attack : Court: A man and his son face life in prison when they are sentenced next month for the 1989 assault that blinded and disfigured a woman.

A father and son were convicted last week in the brutal July, 1989, acid attack in Glendale that left the older man’s former stepdaughter blind and disfigured.

A Pasadena Superior Court jury on Friday found Ara Topalian, 56, and his son, Carlo, 22, guilty of conspiracy to commit aggravated mayhem. Ara Topalian was also found guilty of aggravated mayhem, but jurors convicted his son of a lesser charge: assault with a caustic chemical.

The two face maximum sentences of life in prison with the possibility of parole when sentenced May 6 by Judge J. Michael Byrne.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Nancy Naftel told jurors that the Topalians arranged for a third man, Emad F. Kalta, 21, of Hacienda Heights to throw acid in the face of Shushan Eloyan, now 25, an immigrant from Armenia.

Ara Topalian, assisted by his son, persuaded Kalta to injure the woman because he blamed Eloyan for the breakup of his marriage to the young woman’s mother, the prosecutor said.

Wearing a black dress and dark glasses, and displaying scars left by the attack, Eloyan testified briefly at the trial but was not present for the verdict. She told jurors that, since the assault, she has been able to see “nothing but light.”

“I think she’ll be pleased to know that justice has been done,” Naftel said. “But it doesn’t bring back her eyesight.”

Defense attorneys said they will seek a new trial or, if Byrne does not grant one, appeal the verdict.

His client “understands that this is the first part of the battle,” said Christopher C. Chaney, Ara Topalian’s attorney. “He was surprised by the verdict.”

“It’s obvious that they found Carlo less culpable,” the younger Topalian’s attorney, Forrest B. Smith, said. “But they still subjected him to the same sentence his father is facing” because of the conspiracy charge. “I think it’s a sad case for him and for everyone else who was victimized.”

During the trial, one witness, Timothy A. Witt, a friend of both Carlo Topalian and Kalta, testified that he was present at the Topalians’ apartment in Rowland Heights when Carlo Topalian translated his father’s offer, spoken in Armenian, of a $5,000 to $10,000 payoff to anyone who would throw acid at Eloyan.

Kalta, who said Carlo Topalian was his best friend, testified that the father and son accompanied him to Glendale and that they lured Eloyan outside by offering her and her mother a $1,000 check to help with living expenses. The father and son pointed out Eloyan as she walked to a market to pick up the check, the witness said. Kalta said he threw the acid because he feared that Ara Topalian would harm him or his family if he did not do so.

The jurors said they placed limited weight on the testimony of Kalta, who pleaded guilty last May after agreeing to testify. He faces a maximum of life in prison, with the possibility of parole, when sentenced April 15.

Defense attorneys alleged that Kalta lied about the Topalians’ involvement in a bid for a lighter sentence.

But in her closing argument, Naftel asserted that there was no motive to lie.

“Emad Kalta, when he entered his plea, knew that if he wanted a sentence less than the maximum, then he had to tell the truth,” the prosecutor said. “Consistently, he implicated Ara and Carlo Topalian.”

Naftel said the judge promised to keep an open mind when considering Kalta’s penalty.

Ara Topalian testified that he, alone, accompanied Kalta to Glendale on the day of the attack. But the older man testified that he drank alcohol and fell asleep, learning only later that Kalta had thrown the acid.

Carlo Topalian did not testify.

The jury deliberated for three days. Several jurors said they decided Ara Topalian’s guilt quickly, but they debated his son’s role for hours.

Martha Thierry, the jury foreman, said the panel was not sure Carlo was present during the attack but concluded that he knew of the plot and bore some responsibility for it.

“He could have rendered help,” said Thierry, 44, a nurse from Culver City. “He could have gone to relatives. He could have gone to the police. He could have done something to stop this.”