Judge Sends Teen Slaying Case to Juvenile Court

Declaring that California law does not permit indictment of minors, a judge Thursday sent the case of three Armenian teenagers accused of killing a Glendale Latino youth to Juvenile Court.

The ruling by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Larry P. Fidler was hailed as a victory by defense attorneys, but prosecutors said they may appeal.

“It shows that the district attorney’s office has been overly aggressive in this case,” said Mark Geragos, who represents Karen Terteryan, 18. “We’ll go back to Juvenile Court where justice will prevail.”

Victoria Pipkin, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, said, “The judge had a different interpretation [of the law] than us and that happens.”

Bouncing the case to Juvenile Court is the latest in a series of legal tussles between the prosecution and the defense over where to try what may become a test case over how to interpret Proposition 21. The controversial law was approved by voters in March and authorizes prosecutors to try juveniles age 14 and older in adult court for serious crimes such as murder.

Originally, Terteryan, who was 17 at the time of the incident, Rafael Gevorgyan, 15, and Anait Msryan, 14, were charged with first-degree murder in Glendale Superior Court in the May slaying of 17-year-old Raul Aguirre. Authorities believe that Aguirre was killed in a gang-related fight that had been fueled by ethnic tensions. The Hoover High School senior, who authorities said was not a gang member, was attacked as he tried to break up a scuffle between two Armenian boys and a Latino youth.

Gevorgyan allegedly clubbed Aguirre in the face with a tire iron and Terteryan allegedly stabbed him with a knife. Msryan, a girl, allegedly drove the two boys to the crime scene and tried to help Terteryan, her boyfriend, escape after the killing. The mid-afternoon incident happened in front of Hoover High before a crowd of about 50 students.

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Among the first teenagers in Los Angeles County to be charged as adults under Proposition 21, Terteryan, Gevorgyan and Msryan faced possible life sentences if convicted. But in Juvenile Court, they would be subject to incarceration until age 25, the maximum penalty, said attorney Andrew Flier, who represents Gevorgyan.

Last month, Deputy Dist. Atty. Steven Lopez obtained a separate indictment, voted by a Los Angeles County grand jury, of the three youths, and the charges against them in Glendale were routinely dismissed.

Prosecutors declined to comment on why they sought an indictment, which defense attorneys believed was a tactic to avoid preliminary hearings--which could have revealed the prosecution game plan before the formal trial.

Under the law, the district attorney’s office may file charges up to three times for cases such as this, so prosecutors have one more chance to refile the case in adult court, said Flier, a former deputy district attorney.

On Thursday, Fidler called the indictment “a violation of the statutory scheme” of Proposition 21, and added: “The grand jury did not have a right to do what it did.”

Fidler said he would either have to dismiss the case, or refer it to Juvenile Court. Lopez, who declined comment afterward, chose the latter.

Fidler also suspended proceedings for two weeks while prosecutors decide whether to appeal.

“They screwed up the initial complaints,” Flier said. “Now they’ve screwed up the indictment.”