Testimony Begins in Panah Trial : Crime: Nicole Parker’s father recalls that accused murderer once admired his daughter’s looks. He says the talk may have occurred just prior to her disappearance.

The father of an 8-year-old girl whose bruised and sexually battered body was found stuffed in a suitcase in Woodland Hills testified Monday that her alleged killer once admired his daughter’s looks.

“He commented on how beautiful my daughter was,” Edward Parker said, referring to a brief conversation he had prior to Nicole Parker’s death with his next-door neighbor, Hooman Ashkan Panah, her alleged killer.

Parker recounted the remark on the witness stand as testimony began Monday in Panah’s trial in Van Nuys Superior Court. Panah, a 23-year-old department store clerk, is charged with murder, kidnaping, rape, sodomy and committing lewd acts with a child. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to death.

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

Parker said the conversation with Panah may have taken place just hours before Nicole Parker disappeared on Nov. 23, 1993, from the Woodland Hills apartment complex where he and Panah lived. Nicole’s body was found 24 hours later in Panah’s closet after a frantic, highly publicized search staged from a command post in the sprawling apartment complex.

Panah was arrested after a co-worker notified police that he had confessed to the killing. The co-worker, Rauni Campbell, is scheduled to testify today.

Nicole lived in Tarzana with her mother, Lori Parker, who also testified Monday. Nicole had met Panah previously during other visits with her father, Lori Parker said. “She said (Panah) was her friend,” she said, breaking into tears on the witness stand.

In a low-key but chilling opening statement, prosecutor Peter Berman told the jury that medical experts cannot determine the exact cause of Nicole Parker’s death. The second-grader, who was four feet tall and weighed about 45 pounds, choked on her own vomit and also suffered possibly deadly injuries from being sodomized and throttled.

“There is no doubt that Nicole Parker fought for her life,” Berman told an audience that included Panah’s mother and about 25 of Nicole Parker’s relatives, saying that her assailant gripped her mouth and chin so violently in an effort to subdue her that he left four distinct finger marks.