Sentence of Death Is Sought for Panah : Courts: Prosecutors say murder of Nicole Parker, 8, demands maximum penalty. Suspect pleaded innocent.

Prosecutors announced Friday they will seek the death penalty against Hooman Ashkan Panah, the Woodland Hills man accused of abducting and murdering an 8-year-old girl whose battered body was found in his closet.

Panah, 22, has pleaded not guilty to seven charges, including murder, kidnaping and sodomy, in the Nov. 20 death of Nicole Parker.

“I’m thrilled because I want him dead,” said Lori Parker, mother of the victim. “If they could fry him next week, I’d push the button.”

The decision to seek Panah’s execution was made by a committee of senior prosecutors, who evaluated the case after reviewing a memo prepared by Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter S. Berman. Panah’s defense attorney, Robert Sheahen, was invited to submit statements, but did not, Berman said.

Sheahen plans to use a psychological defense. “Hooman has a history of hospitalization for mental disorders,” Sheahen said Friday. “If California executes a mentally ill person it would be copying backwater Alabama, currently the only state to impose the death penalty in such cases.”

Nicole’s nude body was found in a suitcase hidden in Panah’s bedroom closet under a pile of clothes. Police made the discovery Nov. 21, one day after dozens of volunteers mounted a search for Nicole, who disappeared from the courtyard of the Ventura Boulevard apartment complex where both her father and Panah lived.

“I would say the presumption all along is this was appropriately a death penalty case,” said Berman, citing the brutality of the slaying.

A grand jury also charged Panah with four special circumstance allegations--murder in conjunction with kidnaping, sodomy, child molestation and oral copulation--each of which makes him eligible for the death penalty.

If convicted on any one of the special circumstance charges, Panah would face execution. The minimum sentence, if he is convicted, is life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Berman said the most significant factors in deciding to seek the death penalty were “the seriousness of the offenses that were committed against the child, the brutality of the murder itself (and) the age of the victim.”

Panah’s case involves no “mitigating factors,” or points favorable to the defendant, Berman said.

Panah is scheduled to appear in court May 2 for a hearing on the results of two psychological examinations expected to be conducted later this month.

Records submitted by Sheahen indicate Panah received psychiatric treatment in 1988, six months after he left his native Iran.

A note found in Panah’s car after the murder indicates he made a half-hearted suicide attempt, according to police. In the rambling 10-page document with pages apparently smeared with blood from wounds he made to his wrists, Panah blamed the killing on unnamed “psychotic, evil and powerful” people.

“We have reviewed all of the medical reports that are available to date, and we don’t quite interpret the results of those reports the same as the defense has done publicly,” Berman said.

While refusing to discuss specific facts related to Panah’s psychological condition, Berman acknowledged certain factors may someday be revealed that could persuade prosecutors to drop their quest for Panah’s execution.

“Up to this point, there have been no circumstances that we have found that would warrant a disposition (settlement) other than the death penalty,” Berman said.

That sentiment was echoed by the victim’s mother.

“I don’t think it will hold one drop of water,” Lori Parker said. “Obviously, he’s sick, but I don’t think he’s insane.”