Informant in ’85 Killing Was Suspect’s Brother

Three days after the prime suspect in the 1985 killing of a prominent Agoura Hills pioneer scion shot and killed himself, Los Angeles police confirmed Wednesday that the main witness against the man was his own brother.

Michael Kanan died Sunday after a bizarre two-hour standoff with police in which he fired at officers and killed a horse and a dog before turning the gun on himself near his mother’s Sylmar home. He was 39.

Kanan’s suicide was but the most recent upheaval in the large Kanan family, which traces its roots back to the pioneer days of Southern California and for whom Kanan Road between Malibu and Agoura Hills is named.

Last Friday, Kanan’s aunt, Patricia Kanan, died at 84. A day later, his father, George Kanan, suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized. Family friends said his condition was grave. Some speculated that the two events triggered Michael Kanan’s deadly rampage.

Michael Kanan was long considered the main suspect in the 1985 murder of his wealthy and tough-minded aunt, Judy Kanan, who was gunned down by a masked man in a raincoat as she groomed and fed her prized Arabian horses in Woodland Hills.

For nearly five years, the crime went unsolved. But attention was drawn to Kanan in 1990 after a confidential informant tied him to the killing by providing police with details about the slaying that no one else would know.

On Wednesday, LAPD Sgt. Joel Price confirmed that the informant was Kanan’s brother, Gary. Price said Gary Kanan called detectives from jail and implicated Michael Kanan in the murder.

Price said Gary Kanan provided details, such as the theft of a car reportedly used in the killing, that no one else would have known. Gary Kanan told investigators that he and his brother had plotted to kill their aunt in an effort to free their father from a $2,400 debt and to inherit some of the family’s sizable real estate holdings, which were controlled by Judy Kanan, Price said.

But Gary Kanan also said that he backed out of the plot at the last minute, Price recalled. When news of Judy Kanan’s death hit the media, Price said Gary Kanan confronted his brother about the crime and was told that the situation “was all taken care of.”

Despite Gary Kanan’s testimony, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office refused to file charges against Michael Kanan, who at the time was serving a jail sentence for violating probation on an earlier burglary conviction. Deputy Dist. Atty. Lea Purwin D’Agostino declined to discuss the case Tuesday, saying only that the evidence was insufficient to mount a murder case.

Like his brother, Gary Kanan was described by police and family friends as a troubled man who had a drug problem and spent time in and out of jail. He could not be reached Tuesday and his whereabouts were unknown by family friends.

It was no secret in the large Kanan family that Gary Kanan had provided evidence and turned over his brother, but the recent publicity surrounding Michael Kanan’s suicide has reopened old wounds. The family has steadfastly refused to discuss Michael Kanan’s death.

But Tom Nunziato, an attorney who represented Judy and Patricia Kanan, said that although he does not know who killed Judy Kanan, he doubted it was for money. He said most of the Kanan family property was in Patricia’s, not Judy’s name, so killing Judy Kanan would have done little good.

He also said he doubted the police theory that Judy Kanan was killed to release her brother, George Kanan, from a debt secured by property. He said Judy Kanan would probably not have foreclosed on her own brother. “She was constantly in your face,” Nunziato said, “but there was no substance to it. That’s just the way she was. There was never any meanness to it.”

Nunziato said the family, which buried Patricia Kanan on Tuesday, wants to move on. “Whatever happened,” he said, “It’s over. There’s nothing any of us can do to change it. It’s time to move on.”