8-Year-Old Girl’s Killer Drops Plea of Insanity : Courts: Woodland Hills man who murdered his neighbor changes his mind after learning he could not set limit on questioning.

Hooman Ashkan Panah, a Woodland Hills man convicted last month of the sodomy murder of an 8-year-old neighbor, withdrew his insanity plea Tuesday after learning that he could not dictate limits to his testimony in what was to have been the sanity phase of his trial.

Later, as the legal maneuvering continued in the emotionally charged case at the Van Nuys courthouse, Panah criticized his lawyers and called the victim’s mother a liar--prompting one of his attorneys to rally to the woman’s defense.

The courtroom drama began as Panah, a 23-year-old former department store clerk, prepared to take the witness stand in an attempt to show he was insane at the time he killed Nicole Parker. After huddling with his lawyers, Panah asked Superior Court Judge Sandy R. Kreigler if he could limit his testimony to details of his background and family history.

But Kreigler said he could not guarantee that prosecutor Peter S. Berman would not ask Panah about events pertaining to the murder of the second-grader, whose body was found stuffed in a suitcase in the bedroom closet of Panah’s Woodland Hills apartment.

Panah then declined to take the witness stand. He dropped his insanity defense after Kreigler read reports by mental health experts for the prosecution and defense. The prosecution’s expert found that Panah was sane at the time he killed Nicole. The defense expert reported finding no evidence that he was insane at the time.

With the issue of Panah’s sanity no longer before them, jurors will decide whether the death penalty should be imposed or Panah should spend the rest of his life in state prison.

Testimony in the penalty phase of the trial begins Thursday. Leaders of the Iranian community believe Panah is the first Iranian American to face the death penalty in this country.

He was convicted last month of first-degree murder with special circumstances and of various sex crimes in the Nov. 20, 1993, slaying of Nicole, who had been the subject of a massive search.

The seven men and five women on the jury found that Panah had killed Nicole while sodomizing her and performing other lewd acts on her.

Panah attorney Robert M. Sheahen called his client “clearly a mentally disordered young man” who was not cooperative in interviews with court-appointed mental health experts.

Sheahen maintains that Panah was sexually abused as a child in Iran, was hospitalized for a mental disorder in 1988 and has attempted suicide at least twice.

As four deputies stood in a semicircle behind him, Panah complained to Kreigler about his lawyer’s performance.

He told the judge that Sheahen and co-counsel William Chais had failed to dispute prosecution allegations that a skull-shaped ring caused scratches on the child’s body, or to prove that the dead child’s mother, Lori Parker, and Panah’s former girlfriend had lied about him in their testimony.

As Parker wept softly in the front row of the courtroom, Panah protested:

“I had not been wearing any ring on my hand or fingers for a long period of time. I asked Mr. Sheahen to prove Lori Parker lied on the stand by saying her daughter knew my name. Mr. Sheahen, out of respect or sympathy, did not bring this up in his closing arguments.”

In response, Sheahen told the judge:

“He can assail me 24 hours a day. I don’t want him attacking Mrs. Parker because Mrs. Parker is the last person in these proceedings who should be attacked.”