Murder Suspect Pleads Not Guilty : Courts: Hooman Ashkan Panah, accused in the sexual assault and killing of Nicole Parker, remains in custody without bail.

With a recently hired second attorney by his side, the Woodland Hills man accused in the sexual assault and killing of 8-year-old Nicole Parker pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murder charges that could lead to the death penalty.

Hooman Ashkan Panah, 22, appeared in Van Nuys Municipal Court, where a judge scheduled a Jan. 20 preliminary hearing. Judge Leland B. Harris also ordered that Panah continue to be held without bail.

Panah showed no emotion until--moments before he left the courtroom--he blew kisses at his mother, Mehry Monfared, causing her to burst into tears.

Defense attorney M. Syamak Shafi-Nia asked Harris to order the district attorney to investigate Panah’s contentions that other inmates and sheriff’s deputies in County Jail have beaten him. Harris said he would review that matter if a written request is made.

Nicole’s nude body was found stuffed in a suitcase hidden in Panah’s bedroom closet the day after she disappeared from the courtyard of the apartment complex where both her father and Panah lived. She had been choked, but authorities were unable to determine a precise cause of death.

Panah is accused of abducting Nicole, sexually assaulting her and then killing her Nov. 20, as scores of volunteers began looking for the girl in and near the Ventura Boulevard apartment building.

Prosecutors have previously alleged that Panah sodomized Nicole, and on Tuesday they added new charges of rape and rape with a foreign object.

The day after she was killed, Panah apparently attempted to commit suicide, first by slashing his wrists and then by taking over-the-counter sleeping pills that a female friend helped him buy, authorities said.

Police recovered a suicide note from Panah’s car that implicates him in the killing, “but I am unable to discuss the contents of the note,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter S. Berman.

Panah made incriminating statements to police before they found Nicole’s body, court documents show. Furthermore, a female friend reported that Panah said he “was involved in something real bad” in relation to the missing girl and there was a videotape that “made him look real bad.”

As they were searching Panah’s residence in the hopes of finding that videotape, police instead found Nicole’s body. Investigators did find camera equipment and tapes showing Panah having sex with adult women, but a tape showing Nicole--if such a video does exist--has never been found.

Berman said he still hopes to find that videocassette, which he said Panah may have dumped along with Nicole’s clothes.