Man Sentenced to Death in Slayings of 2 Clerks

As some of its members wept, a jury returned a death verdict against a Native American convicted of killing two clerks eight days apart during a cocaine-fueled crime spree in early 1993.

The San Fernando Superior Court jury deliberated just a day before finding that Richard Leon, 30, deserved to die for his crimes--two slayings committed during a string of 23 robberies over a month.

Jurors would not discuss the case. But their verdict was an apparent repudiation of Leon’s cultural defense, which also included allegations he had been abused as a child.

During the penalty phase of the case, Deputy Public Defender Kenneth Lezin presented evidence that Leon suffered low self-esteem from growing up as an interracial child. His parents abused the child, Lezin said.

Leon was convicted June 27 of two counts of first-degree murder for the Feb. 2, 1993, robbery-murder of Norair “Nick” Akhverdian, 42, at a Shell gas station at Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Roscoe Boulevard and the robbery-murder eight days later of Varouj Armenian, 39, at his convenience store in Hollywood.

The trial began April 30 and involved the testimony of more than 50 witnesses and police investigators from four departments, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jacqueline Lacey said.

It also combined these elements: A defendant whose first crime was robbing a blind man at age 12, a murder weapon that had once been used by New York state police and sold at auction, and victims who had come to Southern California from the former Soviet Armenia in search of a better life for their families.

Leon--also known by the names Richard Leone, Richard Browne, and Richard Jacobs--was described in one psychological report as a “marginal man” caught between the Native American culture of his mother and grandmother, and the white culture of his father.

Although his mother and grandmother were members of the Sioux tribe, the federal government relocated them to Los Angeles during the 1950s. Leon grew up in Van Nuys, where his parents, in particular his father, became enmeshed in the Hispanic gang culture.

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Leon spent most of his years between 13 and 17 in juvenile custody. At 18, he began his first state prison stint for robbing and assaulting an off-duty police officer.

“This person existed in the vacuum between two cultures, neither of which is available to him,” wrote Robert A. Ryan, who evaluated Leon in February. For Leon, he added: “The accepted early culture was alcohol and drug use, and later, prison or correctional institution life.”

During the trial, the defense claimed Leon had been beaten as a child; a sister testified that some of those beatings included hours-long whippings with lengths of plastic track used for toy cars known as “Hot Wheels.” She shrieked and cried hysterically as the verdict was returned, and collapsed, sobbing, on a hallway floor after deputies led her from the courtroom.

The robbery at the gas station, during which Leon gunned down Akhverdian, of Sun Valley, was captured on a surveillance camera videotape and played for the jury.

The tape shows Leon walking into the station, while Akhverdian is working behind the counter. According to Lacey, Akhverdian had just shown a co-worker a map of the United States, pointing out the places he wanted to show his wife and four children.

Leon, wearing a baseball cap turned backward, points a small black Walther pistol at Akhverdian. (The pistol had been stolen during a robbery on Hollywood Boulevard three weeks earlier.)

The clerk raises his hands and, as Leon pokes the gun at him, opens the cash register and points at the drawer. Leon grabs the money, drops it and runs toward the door. Then he turns and fires a shot. Akhverdian falls to the floor.