2 Arraigned in Slaying That Shook Valley

Two Canoga Park men pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that they killed and robbed Laurie Myles, the North Hills woman who was shot to death in front of her 9-year-old son in 1993 while waiting for her teen-age daughter to get out of a Bible study class.

The two men--and a third man currently in prison--also were charged with the murder of Talin Kara Tarkhanian, 20, of Reseda, who was found shot to death behind the wheel of her car in Chatsworth about a month after Myles was killed.

Police allege that Myles was killed at random in a series of violent follow-home robberies the men committed during a crime spree from June to November, 1993. However, a prosecutor said, Tarkhanian was apparently shot because she had a relationship with one of the alleged killers and broke up with him.

In San Fernando Municipal Court on Monday afternoon, Etienne Michael Moore, 20, and LaCedrick Johnson, 19, showed no emotion as they entered their pleas to two counts each of murder, two counts of robbery and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery using force.

The charges carry special circumstances of multiple murders, robbery and lying in wait, which make the defendants liable to the death penalty, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Janice L. Maurizi. The decision on whether or not to seek the death penalty will be made following a preliminary hearing, Maurizi said.

The two men are being held without bail.

Shashonee Monette Solomon, 32, who is being brought down from a state prison near San Luis Obispo, is expected to be arraigned next week for the slaying of Tarkhanian.

The arrests of Moore and Johnson at their Canoga Park homes Thursday culminated an intense investigation begun by police immediately after the Sept. 15, 1993, slaying of Myles, according to Stephen L. Cooley, head deputy of the district attorney’s San Fernando branch.

“The police investigated very diligently and persistently,” Cooley said.

Initially, police were pursuing three separate investigations into the killing of Myles, the killing of Tarkhanian and a string of robberies in the West Valley in 1993.

Police narrowed 500 robberies to about 30 to 40 based on the method of operation, which usually involved robbers following drivers home to darkened areas. The gunmen would typically drive up and rob the victims while they were still seated in their cars or as they were about to get out, Los Angeles Police Lt. Kyle Jackson said.

Detectives also began examining cases in which shots were fired and victims were assaulted. That drew in the investigation into the death of Myles, who was shot as she waited in her car outside her daughter’s Bible study class in Northridge, he said.

“We were able to make connections between other cases and the killing of Laurie Myles, which led us to focus on particular individuals,” Jackson said. “That broke the case for us.”

Maurizi said Myles is believed to be the only robbery victim killed by the group, but at least three others were wounded. She said the robbers fired their guns in some other cases but no one was hit.

“These young men made their living robbing people,” Cooley said. “They did not hesitate to resort to violence with the slightest provocation.”

Two teen-age boys from Canoga Park and a third man were also arrested in the robbery investigation Thursday, but have been released and have not been charged with any crime, Jackson said. Police served search warrants at the homes of five of the suspects Thursday, Jackson said, and evidence seized in the searches was crucial to their investigation into the slayings of Tarkhanian and Myles.

Shortly after 9 p.m. on Sept. 15, 1993, Myles, 37, and her son pulled into the driveway of a home in the 8600 block of Louise Avenue in Northridge to pick up her daughter from a Bible study class.

Before she could get out of her car, a man with a gun approached her and demanded money, the boy later told police. She handed over her purse and a briefcase, but was shot anyway under the left arm at close range and died a short time later at the hospital.

Maurizi said that just before the shot was fired, Myles either screamed or made a move to start the car. Myles’ son, though shaken by the shooting, was able to give police a description of the men and their car.

Tarkhanian’s body was found on Oct. 31, 1993, behind the wheel of her sports car in the hills near the Simi Valley Freeway in Chatsworth. Two weeks earlier, Solomon, who sometimes went by his middle name of Monette, had burst into an office where Tarkhanian worked--and where he previously worked--and fired two shots from a .357 magnum pistol into the floor near her feet and fled, police said.

Police said at the time that Solomon was angry at Tarkhanian because she had reported alleged violations of his parole terms to his parole officer, including that he had been carrying a gun. Solomon, who was convicted of forgery in 1987 and robbery in 1989, was subsequently sentenced to five years imprisonment for possession of a gun by a convicted felon.

Maurizi on Monday said police now believe that Solomon was also angry at Tarkhanian because she broke off their relationship. Although Solomon was in Sacramento at the time Tarkhanian was killed, authorities believe he asked Moore and Johnson to kill her, Maurizi said.

Maurizi added that investigators believe Moore fired the fatal shots in both killings.

The string of robberies ended in November, 1993, police said, when Moore was arrested for assaulting an off-duty Baldwin Park police officer, who had stumbled upon a fight in the parking lot of a Canoga Park liquor store after a robbery. Moore was with a group of men beating up two other men, when Officer Gregory Denels approached them.

The men fired shots at Denels, who was hit twice in the leg. The men then kicked Denels while he was on the ground and took his gun. Moore and three men were arrested shortly after the incident and charged with assault and robbery.

While awaiting trial on those charges, Moore got into a fight with a murder suspect in a courtroom holding cell. He was stabbed several times with a homemade knife, but survived. At the time, police said Moore was stabbed because the other inmate had grown tired of Moore bragging about having almost killed a police officer.

During Moore’s trial, he agreed to plead guilty to robbery in exchange for the assault charge being dropped and was sentenced to two years in prison. He was paroled in February.

Police began connecting the two killings and the robberies earlier this year.

Three additional suspects whom police have described as co-conspirators are also being sought in connection with the string of robberies. Police are hoping that Moore and Johnson will eventually be charged in connection with 30 to 40 additional robberies, Jackson said.

“It’s important that the public understands that in these kinds of cases we will pursue in an unrelenting way those who are responsible for preying on innocent victims,” Jackson said.

News of the arrests came as a relief to Stephen Tavani, who heads a ministry that had employed Myles.

“I’m glad because hopefully it won’t happen to someone else now,” Tavani said. “Secondly, I think it will help bring closure for her son that these guys are behind bars.”

Tavani applauded police for their handling of the case.

Jackson described the detectives who investigated the murders--Michael Opelt, William Berndt, Robert Bogison and Sandra Lefler--as “heroes and heroines.”

“They worked 12 hours a day and on weekends,” Jackson said. “They would not let it go.”