Charges Dropped Against 2 Teens in Fatal Fight at Party

After spending three months in Juvenile Hall on murder charges and costing their parents hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills for big-name defense lawyers, two teenagers were released Wednesday after authorities dismissed the case against them, citing insufficient evidence.

“There’s nothing else I pretty much care about right now but being free,” Sayat Oruncakciel, 18, said outside the Van Nuys Municipal Courthouse. “It feels great.”

Oruncakciel and Michael Aintablian, also 18, were arrested in May after witnesses at a “sweet 16” party said they and four other teenagers started a fight that left 17-year-old Abtin Tangestanifar dead in the street in a wealthy Encino neighborhood.

Their parents said they always knew their children were innocent and spared no expense to free them. They hired Robert Shapiro, a member of the O.J. Simpson defense team, Death Row Records lawyer Robert Kenner and retired state Supreme Court Justice Armand Arabian to defend the teenagers.

The lawyers said their investigators uncovered evidence proving their clients’ innocence.

Indeed, during a preliminary hearing that stretched over weeks, several party-goers who police said initially identified Oruncakciel and Aintablian as aggressors gave different accounts of the beating and stabbing.

Oruncakciel was apparently mistaken for another of the defendants by two witnesses. And a teenage girl who police said identified Aintablian later denied under oath that she had made those statements.

At the end of Wednesday’s hearing, Deputy Dist. Atty. John Morris requested that charges against Aintablian and Oruncakciel be dropped.

“The witnesses exonerated the defendants,” Morris said. “I am satisfied that neither Sayat nor Michael were involved in the fight, based on the testimony.

“My goal was to get to the truth,” he added, “and we did.”

While absolving Aintablian and Oruncakciel, the witnesses also cemented incriminating statements against the other four defendants, Morris said.

The victim’s parents have said that all they want is justice for their dead son. On Wednesday they left the courtroom sobbing as the party’s hostess testified to having found Tangestanifar lying in the street.