VAN NUYS : Judge Orders Trial in Double Fratricide

By THOM MROZEK

June 18, 1993 12 AM PT

For the second time since the killings, a 28-year-old Van Nuys man was ordered to stand trial in the fatal shootings of his two brothers more than three years ago.

Marwan Awwad Samarneh, a Jordanian immigrant, was arrested soon after the February, 1990, slayings of his brothers Mazan, 31, and Maher, 32.

Samarneh was ordered to stand trial in 1990, but he was later found mentally incompetent. However, doctors at Patton State Hospital found earlier this year that Samarneh had recovered and Superior Court Judge John Fisher ordered proceedings to resume.

Attorneys on both sides agree that Samarneh’s mental condition will continue to be an issue, beginning with a Superior Court arraignment scheduled for July 1.

During a preliminary hearing Thursday, Detective Pat Anguiano of the Los Angeles Police Department testified that Samarneh admitted to shooting his two brothers in an apartment they shared on the 6900 block of Kester Avenue in Van Nuys.

“He said the gun accidentally went off,” Anguiano said. “He shot his brothers, but he didn’t mean to.”

Samarneh was arrested at his parent’s Redlands home Feb. 19, 1990. Police recovered the .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol that was used in the killings, which had occurred sometime in the previous four days.

Anguiano testified that Samarneh told him that his brothers, both of whom worked as contractors, were upset that he had bought the gun and an argument led to the accidental discharge of the weapon.

But after Municipal Judge Leslie A. Dunn ordered the trial on two counts of murder, Deputy Dist. Atty. Leonard J. Shaffer said the shooting did not appear to be an accident.

Mazan Samarneh was shot four times, twice in the chest. Maher Samarneh was found in the bathroom of the apartment, 20 feet away from his brother’s body, with two wounds in the arm and one in the back.

The magazine in Samarneh’s pistol could only hold seven rounds, Shaffer said.

After hearing the evidence, Dunn said, “What we’re left with is a deliberate, premeditated killing.”