GLENDALE : 2 Guilty of Lesser Charges in Shooting

Two men pleaded guilty Wednesday to reduced charges in the fatal shooting of a young man at a Glendale mini-mall parking lot in May, a prosecutor said.

Thomas Samer Zaza Jr., 25, of Eagle Rock and Dmitri Egorov, 27, of Glendale had been charged with murder.

Before their hearing started, Zaza entered a guilty plea to one count of voluntary manslaughter in the May 17 shooting of Henrik Galstyan, 21, of Glendale. Galstyan died the next day.

Egorov pleaded guilty to one count of accessory to voluntary manslaughter after the fact, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Anne Hennigan.

Glendale Municipal Judge Barbara Lee Burke scheduled sentencing for Aug. 4. Zaza could receive up to 11 years in state prison and Egorov could receive up to three years.

Hennigan said the plea bargain was offered to the defendants because police could not find eyewitnesses to the shooting.

“We have no evidence that there was any premeditation or any kind of planning at all,” Hennigan said. “So it was really fair and in the interest of justice to offer them . . . a plea (bargain).”

Prosecutors believe that the victim and defendants were involved in a dispute over money. All three were outside a mini-mall parking lot in the 1400 block of East Colorado Street, where Galstyan was shot once in the head during an apparent struggle over a shotgun.

Galstyan was on probation for an April, 1992, felony grand theft conviction, Hennigan said.