Man Guilty in Sex Slaying of Girl, 8

A jury Monday found Hooman Ashkan Panah guilty of first-degree murder in the sex slaying of a second-grade San Fernando Valley girl.

The Van Nuys Superior Court jury found Panah guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances that make him subject to the death penalty pending a sanity hearing. The jury found that Panah, 23, killed 8-year-old Nicole Parker while sodomizing her and performing lewd acts with the child, whose body was found in his bedroom closet in Woodland Hills on Nov. 21, 1993.

Panah clutched prayer beads, shook his head and kissed a copy of the Koran as the seven-man, five-woman jury delivered its verdict. Then, in a strong, clear voice, he told jurors: “There goes another innocent man down.”

Tears rolled down the cheeks of Nicole’s mother, Lori Parker, who later told reporters how much she despised Panah.

“I hate him. He took the life of the most precious little girl anybody could have,” she said. “How dare he? She couldn’t fight back. I hate him.”

After the verdicts were announced, Panah’s mother, Mehri Monfared, collapsed in front of an elevator, shrieking that her son was innocent and had been framed by a justice system prejudiced against Iranian Americans.

Even seasoned prosecutors and police detectives were left teary-eyed by the verdict in a child murder case that has tapped deep emotions in the Valley.

“What I don’t understand is why anybody would do anything like this,” said Joel Price, the lead detective in the case, as he wiped tears from his eyes. “It’s not human.”

Nicole was found dead in Panah’s apartment after vanishing from outside her father’s apartment in the same complex. In addition to murder, Panah was convicted of sodomy, lewd acts with a child, oral copulation and penetration with a foreign object.

Panah entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and did not testify during the trial. The next phase of the case will focus on his psychiatric background and family history.

Defense attorney Robert Sheahen contends that Panah was sexually abused as a child in Iran, has been hospitalized for a mental disorder at least once before and has tried suicide at least twice.

The jury will hear testimony from mental health experts for the prosecution and defense and decide whether Panah knew right from wrong and understood what he was doing when he killed the child. If it finds that Panah was sane at the time he killed Nicole, a third hearing will follow to determine whether he should be executed or spend the rest of his life in prison.

Superior Court Judge Sandy R. Kriegler scheduled the sanity phase to begin Jan. 3.

Throughout the trial, Nicole’s parents sat stoically in the front row of the courtroom. Lori Parker, the mother of three older sons, averted her eyes during particularly gruesome testimony and sobbed in a courthouse corridor during a detailed account of how her daughter died.

“It’s been hell,” she said. “My life will never, ever be the same again. I lost my youngest child to a violent, violent death, and it’s just not fair.”

Panah’s mother also attended the trial daily, at times appearing red-eyed and upset. On Monday, she distributed copies of petitions signed by about 500 members of the Iranian American community protesting what they view as “biased and prejudiced” court proceedings.

Panah is believed to be the first Iranian American to face the death penalty in California. Lori Parker, a paralegal from Tarzana, is engaged to marry a criminal defense attorney, a point noted by Panah’s attorney in pretrial motions.

“There is no good justice in this building,” Monfared said. “I believe in American justice, but not in this building.”