Child-Murder Case Inflames Emotions : Trial: Store clerk accused in girl’s death plans insanity defense.

As Hooman Ashkan Panah’s capital murder trial begins, there is no doubt that emotions run deep about this case involving the sex-murder of second-grader Nicole Parker. The signs are everywhere:

Carved in a wooden railing outside Superior Court Judge Sandy Kreigler’s sixth-floor Van Nuys courtroom, is graffiti warning that the “sex kid,” Panah, “must die.”

A bailiff who escorted the once-suicidal defendant to court recently was assigned to other duties after reportedly telling Panah, “Why don’t you just kill yourself and save the taxpayers time and money?”

A seasoned detective broke into tears on the witness stand last month as he recounted his futile search for Nicole.

The defense attorney, Robert Sheahen, hasn’t been spared. Sheahen recalled in court papers that he recently met a longtime legal colleague who told him, “No offense, Bob, but I hope your guy dies.”

Panah, a 23-year-old department store clerk, is charged with murder, kidnaping, rape, sodomy and committing lewd acts with a child. He could face the death penalty.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and plans to use an insanity defense.

Testimony is scheduled to begin Monday.

Because jury selection is continuing and feelings are so easily inflamed in the case, prosecutor Peter Berman and defense attorney Sheahen aren’t discussing details. They are circumspect in their remarks, limiting them to matters of fact or procedure.

But records contained in the court file lay bare the ugliness of the killing, and set the stage for what could be a disturbing courtroom battle.

“It’s going to be a very ugly trial,” said Nicole’s mother, Lori Parker. “I’m dreading it.”

Southern California’s Iranian community also is abuzz about the case, since Panah is believed to be the first Iranian immigrant to face a possible death sentence in California.

Television coverage in the community of Iranian immigrants “has reached saturation level,” defense attorney Sheahen said in court papers. He argued unsuccessfully that the case be moved out of the San Fernando Valley for Panah to receive a fair trial.

Sheahen pointed to what he called strong anti-Iranian feelings in American society, describing Panah in court papers as “a foreigner from the most loathed location on the planet, and clearly a member of a group which arouses community hostility.”

Berman disputed that argument in his legal response, pointing out that the Valley is ethnically diverse enough that picking an impartial jury shouldn’t be difficult. If there are strong emotions about the case, he argued, they are a reaction to the crime itself.

Panah is accused of luring the 8-year-old Nicole into his Woodland Hills apartment, sodomizing her, strangling her and stuffing her nude, battered body into a suitcase left in his closet.

Nicole disappeared shortly after 11:45 a.m. on Nov. 20, 1993. She was last seen playing with a softball and mitt in the courtyard between her father’s apartment and Panah’s.

Her body was found in Panah’s closet about 24 hours later, following a frantic, highly publicized search staged from a command post at the sprawling apartment complex.

Panah was arrested Nov. 21 after slashing his wrists and swallowing a bottle of sleeping pills in an apparent suicide attempt. After slashing his wrists, he appeared at a former girlfriend’s apartment, saying he had “done something really bad and she would be hearing about it,” she told police. He also told her the missing child was dead.

After Panah’s arrest, police recovered a blood-stained journal in the BMW he was believed to have been driving. In the journal, he apologized to the child’s family, but blamed Nicole’s death on “powerful, evil and psychotic” people who “had a very strong weapon.”

Adding to the emotional caldron is the fact that the families of the victim and the defendant enjoy stature in their communities.

Panah’s mother, Mehri Monfared, has been her son’s staunchest defender. She has led efforts to establish a legal defense fund.

She produces a popular television show in Los Angeles for the Iranian community. The Panah case has been featured prominently on Iranian television shows and on the International Channel. In the Iranian community, many members “feel strongly that circumstances of this case reflect an appearance of institutional bias in favor (of) . . . Mrs. Parker against defendant Panah.”

Lori Parker has worked as a paralegal and a legal secretary and is engaged to marry prominent criminal defense attorney Martin Gladstein. She is involved in the activities of her three other children--Little League, soccer, church and school activities.

“The community really has rallied around me,” she acknowledged. Parker said that after Nicole’s slaying she received about 3,000 cards and letters.

On the one-year anniversary of Nicole’s death, a Catholic priest said Mass at her house. Thirty-five friends and relatives attended.

Gladstein said that neither he nor Parker has enjoyed any special treatment from court staff. If they are sympathetic figures, it is “because of the victim, because Nicole was so young and so innocent.”

And if the case strikes a public chord, it is not because of issues of privilege or prejudice, he said. It is a matter of lost innocence, and a lost sense of safety.

“Everybody who has kids realized there is no place that is safe anymore. If it can happen to a little 8-year-old in a secured apartment complex in a nice part of town, it can happen to anyone,” he said.

“She was a defenseless, little tiny girl,” Parker said. “That’s where the emotion comes from . . . This is every parent’s worst nightmare.”