Jury Finds Man Guilty in Murder of 8-Year-Old : Courts: Hooman Ashkan Panah, 23, faces the death penalty in the sodomy, slaying of Nicole Parker. Hearing on his sanity begins Jan. 3.

Hooman Ashkan Panah clutched prayer beads, shook his head and kissed a copy of the Koran as a jury found him guilty Monday of first-degree murder in the sex-slaying last year of second-grader Nicole Parker.

Then, in a strong, clear voice, the 23-year-old Panah unexpectedly expressed his displeasure to the jury: “There goes another innocent man down.”

The Van Nuys Superior Court jury found Panah guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances that make him eligible for the death penalty. The seven-man, five-woman jury found Panah had killed Nicole 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.

After the verdicts were read, tears rolled down Lori Parker’s cheeks. Later, Nicole’s mother told reporters: “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.”

Outside the courtroom, 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 misty-eyed by the verdict in a child murder case that has tapped deep emotions in the San Fernando Valley. The 8-year-old girl was last seen in the courtyard of her father’s apartment, just a few feet away from Panah’s unit, and hundreds had participated in the search for her.

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

Panah also was convicted of sodomy, lewd acts with a child, oral copulation and penetration by a foreign object.

The focus of the case now will shift toward Panah’s 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.

Panah, who has not yet testified, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. After hearing testimony from mental health experts for the prosecution and defense, the jury will be asked to decide whether Panah knew right from wrong and understood what he was doing when he killed the child.

If the jury finds 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.

If Panah is found to have been not sane at the time of the slaying, he will be ruled not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a state mental hospital.

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

Throughout the trial, Nicole’s parents sat stoically in the front row of the courtroom. Lori Parker 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 Iranian Americans protesting what they view as “biased and prejudiced” court proceedings.

Panah is believed to the the first Iranian American to face the death penalty in California. Lori Parker, a paralegal, is engaged to marry a well-liked 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.”

Witnesses during the eight-day trial recounted how a frantic, 36-hour search for a missing child turned into a homicide investigation with the grisly discovery of Nicole’s body.

Hundreds of volunteers distributed 20,000 missing persons flyers and combed the Valley looking for the friendly, dark-eyed second-grader who loved play-acting and softball. Actor Jeff Bridges, a family friend, made a personal appeal for help in finding her.

Panah himself offered to help, suggesting to Nicole’s father, Edward Parker, that they drive along Ventura Boulevard in search of the child.

By then, badly bruised and torn by the violent attack, the child’s 45-pound corpse had already been wrapped in a bloodstained bedsheet and stuffed inside a suitcase hidden under a pile of laundry in Panah’s bedroom closet.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter S. Berman called the child’s body “the smoking gun” in a case built on forensic and circumstantial evidence.

According to testimony, Nicole was last seen about 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 20, 1993, bouncing a softball against a wall in a courtyard at the gated View Pointe apartment complex on Ventura Boulevard, where her father, Edward Parker, lived in Apt. 102.

Her parents, now divorced, were separated at the time, and Nicole visited her father on weekends.

Panah lived in Apt. 122, and the child considered him a friend, Berman said. She probably willingly entered Panah’s apartment, Berman said, where Panah forced her to perform oral sex on him, violated her with a foreign object, then sodomized her.

Nicole fought back, but at 4 feet, 3 inches, she was no match for the 150-pound man “who treated her like she wasn’t human,” Berman said. An autopsy showed Nicole was dead by 1 p.m.

Berman told jurors that Panah probably got rid of the child’s clothes and, perhaps, an incriminating sex tape he may have made with Nicole. Then, he went to work that afternoon at a department store at the Fallbrook Mall.

Panah’s eventual downfall, Berman said, was that he had been unable to dispose of the child’s body before her father noticed she was missing, mounted a search and called police.

Panah never returned to his apartment because police set up a command post at the complex to organize the search for Nicole. Police found the child’s body late Nov. 21 while combing Panah’s bedroom for videotapes and other clues to her whereabouts.

Investigators’ suspicions had been aroused after learning that Panah had told a co-worker he had done “something really bad,” knew the missing child was dead and mentioned a videotape that made him “look bad.”

The co-worker testified that Panah, dried blood caked on his slashed wrists, knocked on the door of her apartment the morning of Nov. 21 asking for help in killing himself. She helped Panah acquire some over-the-counter sleeping pills, then called police. When officers arrived, she told them what Panah had said.