Justices Uphold Death Sentences for 3 Killers : Executions: State high court rejects appeal of man who murdered two hostages during holdup of Beverly Hills jewelry store.

The state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the death sentences of three killers, including a would-be robber who staged a bloody takeover of a Beverly Hills jewelry store in 1986 that resulted in the deaths of three hostages.

The justices unanimously rejected an appeal by Steven Livaditis, who in a tense, 13-hour standoff stabbed a security guard to death and fatally shot a clerk. A third victim--the store manager--was accidentally killed by a sheriff’s marksman when Livaditis tried to escape using other hostages for cover.

Police said Livaditis told them that he stabbed the security guard because he was “uncooperative and antagonistic,” adding that the knife “went in just like butter.” Livaditis killed the clerk to “prove his demands should be taken seriously,” police said.

The justices turned down Livaditis’ contentions that the trial judge, on his own initiative, should have warned jurors to be cautious about accepting such quoted but unrecorded admissions.

The court, in an opinion by Justice Armand Arabian, said the cautionary instruction must be given in the penalty phase of the case only when requested by defense attorneys.

In a separate opinion, Justice Stanley Mosk said the warning should have been given because remarks by a suspect in such circumstances might be misquoted or misinterpreted by police. But Livaditis was not entitled to a retrial because the defense had not contested the accuracy of the statements, Mosk said.

In two other capital cases, the justices also unanimously affirmed the death sentence of David Allen Raley for the 1985 torture-murder of a 16-year-old girl in a deserted Hillsborough mansion and upheld the death penalty for Curtis Lynn Fauber for the 1986 ax killing of a reputed drug dealer in Oxnard.

Livaditis, now 28, took five hostages during a bungled robbery of the Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry store on Rodeo Drive shortly after it opened on June 23, 1986.

During a tension-filled standoff with police, Livaditis threatened to execute the hostages one by one unless authorities left and he was allowed to go on television.

According to testimony, Livaditis told security guard William Richard Smith, 54, that he talked too much before he stabbed Smith to death with a hunting knife. Later, as he spoke to a television reporter, Livaditis put down the phone and fatally shot store clerk Ann Heilperin, 40.

Just before midnight, Livaditis tied the three remaining hostages together and tried to use them for cover as he left the store. In the confusion, store manager Hugh Skinner, 60, was shot by a deputy. Officers rescued the hostages and arrested Livaditis. Livaditis pleaded guilty to three counts of murder but in the penalty phase of the trial sought a sentence of life without parole instead of death.

In other action Thursday, the high court:

* Left intact the double-murder conviction of Thomas John Marston of Willits, who contended that he had been denied a fair trial because his defense attorney and the prosecutor were involved in a bitter paternity dispute at the time. An appeal court had held that neither a previous sexual relationship nor any resulting ill will between the two caused a conflict of interest that harmed Marston.

* Rejected a challenge by state employees to a 1991 law that allowed the use of $1.6 billion in pension funds to help balance the state budget. The justices, with two dissenting votes, let stand a March state appeals court ruling that the abolition of two special retirement funds did not violate pensioner rights.