Man Convicted of 1992 Murder of Millionaire : Courts: Nonagenarian Louie Molduf asphyxiated in the trunk of Anthony West’s car, then was dumped at a grade school.

After deliberations that lasted less than three hours, a Superior Court jury convicted a 34-year-old man Wednesday of first-degree murder in the 1992 torture-slaying of a Pasadena millionaire.

Anthony West of Pasadena was found guilty of murder and the special circumstances of kidnaping and killing a witness, 90-year-old Louie Molduf.

During the weeklong trial, West took the stand and admitted that he had stuffed Molduf, his girlfriend’s father, into the trunk of a car after an argument. Though West said he had planned only to scare Molduf, without food and water the elderly man died in the trunk. His body was found dumped in the parking lot of a North Hollywood elementary school.

Prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty, so West will most likely be sent to prison for life without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced Sept. 19.

Deputy Public Defender Michael Gottlieb, West’s lawyer, said he plans to ask Judge Sandy Kriegler for mercy. It would be “cruel and unusual,” Gottlieb said, to sentence West to prison for life.

On the stand, Gottlieb said, West “was quite adamant that he never intended to hurt [Molduf]” and “just lost control and panicked.”

“I was hoping the jury would compromise and come back with second-degree. The jury didn’t feel that way,” the defense attorney said. Regarding the crime itself: “It was a pathetic situation. [West] never intended to hurt this guy,” Gottlieb said.

Outside court, Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard F. Walmark said: “It was a horrible death. The jury followed the law. And justice was served.”

According to authorities, West and Molduf argued on Sept. 14, 1992, after Molduf threatened to tell police that West had forged $25,000 worth of checks written on Molduf’s account.

West--who had been dating Molduf’s daughter, Diane--forced Molduf into the trunk of a 1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass and drove around, with the two of them yelling at each other in the car while West drove, Walmark said.

The last time Molduf was known to be alive, Walmark said, was the morning of Sept. 15, when he told West he needed to get out of the trunk to use a bathroom.

West did not let him out. Investigators found scratch marks on the inside of the trunk as well as dents on the inside of a rear quarter panel, indicating that Molduf had tried to break free with a tire jack, Walmark said.

An autopsy found that Molduf had died of asphyxia. It also revealed that Molduf had suffered a broken rib and tears to the cartilage around his larynx.

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West dumped the body in a parking lot at Toluca Lake Elementary School in North Hollywood. A school employee found the body Sept. 18 at about 6 a.m.

During the trial, West’s courtroom behavior was unremarkable--a marked change from his deportment during pretrial hearings, when his behavior ran the gamut from dazed to bizarre.

At his arraignment, West collapsed and babbled in a corner, then invited everyone in the courtroom to dinner. He asked bailiffs to pull up his car--the 1979 Cutlass--and treated them like valets, according to a transcript.

On other occasions, West wet his pants or fell limp.

Authorities alleged that he was faking mental illness to avoid prosecution. After psychiatric examinations at Patton State Hospital, West was found competent to stand trial earlier this year.