Ito Bailiff Is Slain Chasing a Prowler : Tragedy: Sheriff’s deputy is shot after he confronts a man in his neighbor’s yard in Pasadena. Judge adjourns Simpson trial in his memory.

An off-duty bailiff for Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito died Wednesday after being shot by a prowler he chased from his neighbor’s front yard in Pasadena.

Antranik Geuvjehizian, a 32-year-old sheriff’s deputy who lived in Ito’s neighborhood, died about 4 a.m. at Huntington Memorial Hospital despite two surgeries, said Pasadena Police Lt. Gene Gray.

His voice audibly breaking, Ito adjourned the O.J. Simpson trial Wednesday afternoon in Geuvjehizian’s memory.

“One of our bailiffs, one of our deputy sheriffs, who has served with us, Deputy Geuvjehizian, was unfortunately shot and killed yesterday,” Ito told the jury.

Geuvjehizian and his wife were taking trash out to the curb about 9:45 p.m. Tuesday when they saw a suspicious-looking man in their neighbor’s yard on South Los Robles Avenue, Gray said. As the man came toward the couple, Geuvjehizian confronted him while the deputy’s wife, Vicki Sarmiento, ran to call police, Gray said.

When the prowler ran away, Geuvjehizian chased him. During the chase, he was shot several times in the upper body, Gray said.

Sarmiento did not see the shooting, but heard her husband yelling and then the shots, investigators said. She found her husband on a neighbor’s lawn, critically wounded. The prowler was gone.

Geuvjehizian was conscious when the first officer reached the scene and did talk before he was taken to the hospital, Gray said. Police refused to divulge what he told them, but said there were witnesses to parts of the incident.

The assailant was described as an athletically built black male, 5 feet 10 and weighing about 180 pounds.

A neighbor, Ruth Bean, said the deputy and his wife had purchased their home several years ago in the upscale neighborhood and had carefully renovated the house.

“Homicides are essentially unheard-of in the area,” said Councilman William E. Thomson Jr., whose district includes the deputy’s block.

“It’s sad any time anyone loses their life. It is even more tragic when it’s a law enforcement officer trying to protect his home and neighborhood,” Thomson said.

Geuvjehizian was known in trial transcripts as “Deputy G-12” because the names of all bailiffs are withheld for security reasons. His colleagues in the Sheriff’s Department mourned his loss Wednesday by covering their badges with black bands.

“He was the guy who went out of his way to help others,” said Deputy Oscar Olivas. “When everyone else was down he was the guy who kept us all awake.”

Times staff writer Tim Rutten contributed to this story.