Twin Towers Inmate Stages Hunger Strike

A 40-year-old Studio City man awaiting sentencing on assault charges has been on a hunger strike at the Twin Towers Jail protesting his innocence, and authorities are worried that if he doesn’t eat soon, he could die.

Sheriff’s officials say they cannot force medical attention--even food--on an inmate who refuses it.

“We’re responsible for their medical care, but we can’t force somebody to accept medical care,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Richard Moak, an administrator in the jail’s medical services department. “He’s a human being. He can make his own decisions.”

Moak confirmed that Andranik Karabajakyan, an Armenian immigrant, was in the jail hospital, under medical observation.

He apparently stopped eating after he was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and terrorist threats on Feb. 25.

The only way he can be force-fed is if mental health professionals deem he does not understand the consequences of his actions, authorities said.

Karabajakyan was scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday, but was not brought to court by sheriff’s deputies at the time of his hearing. sentencing was postponed for two weeks.

“They sincerely seem to be concerned at the jail that he’s starving to death,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Ed Abele.

However, Abele said he was also concerned that the hunger strike might be a “manipulative effort” by the defendant to avoid imprisonment and pointed out that a jury has deemed Karabajakyan a threat to society.

The hunger strike was one of several reasons why Karabajakyan’s lawyer said in court papers that his client should given probation, rather than sentenced to five years in prison.

The lawyer also argued that Karabajakyan’s crimes were the result of a “mental condition.”

Karabajakyan approached a neighbor in his Laurel Canyon Boulevard apartment complex late one night last April, pulled a gun on him and threatened his life, demanding to know where the man was taking his sperm. The frightened and puzzled neighbor, who didn’t know what Karabajakyan was talking about, wrested the gun from him and summoned police.

At one point, Karabajakyan was found incompetent to stand trial, but was later found competent.

Moak said Karabajakyan had also starved himself when he was arrested on the assault charges and taken to the jail. His weight had dropped so low then that authorities deemed his condition life-threatening and transferred him to County-USC Medical Center. He was later released on bail.