Jury Calls for Death Sentence for Killer of 8-Year-Old Girl : Murder: Panel in Nicole Parker slaying is not swayed by testimony from Hooman Panah’s mother that she abused her son. She also threatens suicide.

Jurors recommended Monday that a convicted child-killer be put to death, saying they were deeply moved but unswayed by his mother’s suicide threats and by her testimony that she had abused her son.

The jurors deliberated for four days before finding that Hooman Ashkan Panah, 23, should receive the death penalty in the death of second-grader Nicole Parker.

In a desperate bid to spare her son’s life, Mehri Monfared, a former cable television talk show host and producer, had portrayed herself in testimony as an abusive and controlling parent who beat, belittled and slept and showered with her only son.

Monfared, 47, said she slapped, bit and threw a knife at him when he was a child. She cut off his hair and hit him with shoes. She said she called Panah a derogatory Farsi word for homosexual and refused to believe him when he said he was molested by a grandfather. Later, she showered and slept with Panah, admitting she felt attracted to him because he resembled his father, whom she divorced when Panah was 3.

“Hooman was raised by a mother from Dante’s ninth level of hell,” said defense attorney Robert Sheahen, who unsuccessfully tried to persuade jurors that Panah’s life should be spared because a harsh upbringing and unnatural relationship with his mother left him mentally ill.

“The man is getting what he deserves based on what he did,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter S. Berman said. “The essence of this abuse story came from Mr. Panah and his mother. It’s entirely possible there was some abuse of Mr. Panah.”

But, the prosecutor added, “I doubt it was the picture of brutality painted on the witness stand. A great deal of it was an exaggeration designed to invoke sympathy, and the jurors saw through it. “

The six men and six women on the jury said their deliberations were not influenced by Monfared’s threat from the witness stand that she would take her own life if the jury’s verdict was death.

“Suicide is her decision,” said one juror. “If she does it, she does it.”

Defense attorney Sheahen said Monday that Panah backed out of a plea negotiation that could have spared his life. Sheahen said Panah refused to plead guilty after his mother said she would commit suicide if he did so.

In December, after the jury found Panah guilty of first-degree murder, sodomy and related sex offenses, Monfared took an overdose of pills, according to testimony.

Panah slashed his wrists and swallowed a bottle of over-the-counter pain medication after Nicole Parker’s murder. He was hospitalized in 1988 after an earlier suicide try that followed a quarrel with his mother.

To the jury, Panah’s mother became the more sympathetic figure.

“The greatest injustice perpetrated in this trial, other than the murder itself, was the vilification of Mrs. Monfared,” the jury foreman said in a statement. “Whatever mistakes she made, she made them honestly and out of a genuine and loving concern for her son.”

As the jury returned the death verdict, Panah, a former Pierce College student and department store clerk, briefly touched a copy of the Koran.

Lori Parker, the victim’s mother, accidentally kicked a wooden barrier as tears streamed down her face when the verdict was read.

“I really wanted the death penalty,” she said later. “I wanted it for Nicole.”

As in all death penalty cases, Panah’s sentence will automatically be reviewed by the state Supreme Court. Sentencing is scheduled for March 6.

Authorities said the case has been an emotional drain on all concerned.

Joel Price, lead detective on the case for the Los Angeles Police Department, said the case played a role in his decision to leave the homicide unit and work in community relations.

There were tears in Price’s eyes as he hugged Lori Parker after the verdict. “We won. We won,” she told the detective.

Nicole was 8 when she disappeared on Nov. 20, 1993, from the courtyard of her father’s gated apartment complex in Woodland Hills.

Hundreds of people joined in the search for Nicole, which ended 36 hours later when her bruised body was found stuffed in a suitcase hidden under laundry in Panah’s closet.

The trial, which began in early December, brought the lives of the two mothers--Monfared and Parker--into sharp focus.

“It must be terrible,” one juror said. “Their pain must be unbearable.”

Parker told jurors her family was devastated by Nicole’s murder. One son abandoned his college plans and contemplated suicide. Another changed schools and began dabbling with drugs and alcohol. Her former husband, Edward, blamed himself.

Parker said she planned to look toward the sky and talk to Nicole on Monday night.

“I’m going to tell her, ‘We did it baby,’ ” Parker said. “ ‘We got the most we could get.’ ”