Suspect Was Viewed as Psychotic After Girl’s Death

In a hospital the afternoon of his arrest on suspicion of killing an 8-year-old girl, Hooman Panah was “acutely psychotic” and claimed he saw two “black-hooded strangers” who told him to kill himself, according to medical reports.

Records also show that Panah was given a heavy dose of the powerful antipsychotic medication Haldol in a hospital emergency room before his arrest--medication which Panah’s lawyer said may invalidate his alleged confession to police.

Panah, 22, was indicted in February on charges of murder, rape and sodomy in the death of Nicole Parker, whose body was found in a suitcase in a closet of Panah’s Woodland Hills apartment.

His mental state, reflected in records of his emergency room treatment, is expected to be the centerpiece of his defense. Prosecutors have not decided whether to seek the death penalty.

Panah has not entered an insanity plea. Defense attorney Robert Sheahen said Tuesday that he is awaiting the findings of court-appointed mental health experts.

When Panah was hospitalized on Nov. 21, the day after Nicole’s death, he had slashed his wrists and overdosed on over-the-counter sleeping pills. Records show he was given 5 milligrams of Haldol, a medication often used to control schizophrenics.

“This did produce a slight sedating effect on the patient so he was more cooperative,” John Palmer, an emergency room physician at West Valley Hospital, wrote in the records.

The medication may have impaired Panah’s ability to judge whether he should exercise his right to remain silent, Sheahen said.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Larry Diamond declined to comment, other than to say, “I don’t think this case turns on any particular statement made by the defendant.”

Other records indicate that Panah, a German citizen who was born in Iran, had been hospitalized in 1988, six months after arriving in the United States, following a suicide attempt, according to Sheahen.

Recently released transcripts of testimony before the Los Angeles County grand jury that indicted Panah also indicate suicide was on his mind in the hours after the killing.

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Less than 12 hours after Nicole is believed to have died during a sex act, Panah sat in his black BMW overlooking the San Fernando Valley at Mulholland Drive and Beverly Glen Boulevard and made what was meant to be the final entry in his journal, the transcripts say.

In a rambling diary entry, made at about 11:45 p.m. on Nov. 20, Panah apologized for the death of Nicole--then the subject of an intensive police search--but blamed the killing on other “psychotic, evil and powerful” people, according to the transcript.

“I feel so sorry this had to happen. I feel so sorry for you, the parents,” Panah wrote. “Believe me, that’s why I am letting myself go. After all, this is how they brought me down. . . . They had a very strong weapon. I was so scared, ashamed, upset, destroyed inside and powerless. The kid was already dead and they were pushing me into it and looked like I’m normal and made it look like my fault.”

The long-haired Mervyn’s clerk then said goodby to his pet bird and his friends, writing about “the real me” and his love of nature and plans to become a police detective.

Much of his rambling writing, which prosecutors characterized as self-serving, focused on unidentified people he believed were persecuting him.

“After all, this is how they brought me down,” Panah explained in the diary, which became stained with his blood when he slashed his wrists in an apparent suicide attempt.

“They were forcing me to do it. They wanted to kill my mom and me. I had no choice, so they pushed me into it and set me up at the same time. It was like a nightmare I’m still trying to wake up from.”

Panah’s fear of “them” apparently led him into a confrontation with his supervisor at Mervyn’s the night before Nicole was slain. The dispute involved Panah’s refusal to park his car where other employees parked. Calling the supervisor a “dictator,” he protested that “they” would vandalize his BMW, according to the transcript.

The transcript also described the events surrounding Nicole’s disappearance.

Her father, Ed Parker, said Nicole had been “play-acting” in the courtyard of the apartment complex where he lived, while her older brother, Casey, played with a remote-controlled car. Later, she played with a ball and baseball mitt while Parker did laundry and emptied the trash. He began a door-to-door search when she disappeared shortly before noon on Nov. 20.

Panah denied he had seen Nicole when Parker knocked on his door about 1 p.m. Prosecutor Peter Berman told the grand jury he believes that at that point, Nicole had been dead a short time.

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Police arrested Panah the next morning as he wandered the streets near a friend’s West Hills apartment, dazed by an overdose of over-the-counter sleeping pills he’d shoplifted in an apparent suicide attempt--his second after Nicole’s death. He’d slashed his wrists, but those cuts were superficial, according to court records.

He told the friend, Rauni Campbell, a co-worker, that he’d done something terrible. She asked him if it had to do with the missing child, and he said yes. Panah also told her the child was dead, said Campbell, who immediately called police, according to the transcript.

At about 10:30 p.m., police found Nicole’s body, wrapped in a sheet and curled in a suitcase buried under other suitcases and a pile of dirty laundry in Panah’s closet.