Man Convicted of Murdering Family in Fire

Jurors swiftly convicted a Glendale man Wednesday of murdering his wife and six children in an early morning arson, a crime for which he could be sentenced to die.

Capping a quick trial, jurors took only about an hour to pick a foreman and convict Jorjik Avanesian on all counts--seven murder charges and an arson count--and to find that the special circumstance of multiple murder existed.

The issues, however, were not complicated. Avanesian, 43, had confessed to Glendale police and to the editor of a Farsi language newspaper moments after leaving his one-bedroom Glendale apartment, his hands and clothing burned from the gasoline fire. Passersby saw the Iranian immigrant leave the apartment house as his family cried out for help in the early morning hours of Feb. 6, 1996.

Deputy Public Defender Stanley Perlo told the jury that his client annihilated his entire family because he was under the delusion that his wife and eldest daughters were taking illicit drugs and making pornographic videos, and that his prayers told him he should kill them and himself. He said the defendant panicked and fled the burning apartment, leaving his family to perish from smoke inhalation.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Eleanor Hunter told jurors that Avanesian planned to eliminate his family because of a more pedestrian problem: His 37-year-old wife refused to give him a divorce. Hunter said Avanesian told authorities he bought a knife and an ax intending to spare his children from suffering a fiery death by hacking them to bits.

As he left the apartment house, he ignored a man who was trying frantically to get into the apartment building to save Avanesian’s family, according to testimony in the weeklong trial.

Firefighters searching the burned apartment found three of his children’s lifeless bodies piled on top of each other in the bedroom, three more in a water-filled bathtub and his wife’s body in the hallway. The children ranged in ages from 4 to 17.

“The worst part was that he planned this whole murder days earlier,” Glendale police spokesman Chahe Keuroghelian said. “He asked for the guilty verdict.”

The slaying was not Avanesian’s first attack involving his family. Police arrested Avanesian after his wife complained that he threw a chair at one of their children and brandished a knife. Authorities declined to prosecute, sending Avanesian to counseling instead.

He also told police he served eight months in an Iranian prison for stabbing his wife, but was allowed into the United States in 1995 after convincing immigration officials that his imprisonment was a case of persecution.

Jurors will now have to decide whether Avanesian deserves to die.

The penalty trial, which will begin next week, promises to focus more squarely on the issue of the defendant’s mental health.

At one point, Pasadena Superior Court Judge Janice Croft found Avanesian was mentally unfit to aid in his defense. But after some psychiatric treatment, she decided he was competent to stand trial.

Perlo has lined up two psychiatrists who evaluated Avanesian as witnesses in the trial. He also told the judge he may call the defendant’s sister as a witness. Perlo did not, however, enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. He has declined to say why, calling the decision a trial tactic.

When the jury’s verdict came in, Perlo said Avanesian asked to see the coroner’s photos of his dead family.

“It looked like he was saying goodbye,” Perlo said.

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Times Community News correspondent Deborah Haar contributed to this story.