Ruling Fails to Win Release for Teens Accused in Killing

Prosecutors filed new murder charges Tuesday against three Glendale teenagers after a judge dismissed the original indictments because an appellate court ruled the defendants were wrongly denied a preliminary hearing.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Wesley threw out the case against Karen Terteryan, 19; Rafael Gevorgyan, 16; and Anait Msryan, 15. Wesley said he had no choice because of the appellate ruling, one of the first involving a 2000 ballot measure that made it easier to try minors as adults.

For a time Tuesday, it appeared the defendants would be freed from jail, where they have been held for 19 months in the killing of a 17-year-old Glendale boy.

“I have no jurisdiction to transfer these minor defendants unless there is a hold on them,” Wesley said. “If there is no hold on them, they will be released today and have to be rearrested.”

But prosecutors had already refiled the first-degree murder charges, preventing the defendants’ release.

Terteryan, who is accused of stabbing Hoover High School senior Raul Aguirre to death in May 2000, is set to be arraigned today in downtown Los Angeles. Gevorgyan and Msryan are also scheduled for arraignment today in juvenile court.

The case ran into trouble because prosecutors obtained grand jury indictments against the defendants instead of presenting charges at a preliminary hearing. The district attorney’s office had said it could take the grand jury route under Proposition 21.

But defense attorneys argued that the measure did not permit prosecutors to forgo preliminary hearings when charging juveniles with adult crimes.

In August, the 2nd District Court of Appeal ordered the indictments dismissed. It ruled that a grand jury, because it operates without judicial review, cannot indict minors charged as adults under Proposition 21, last year’s ballot initiative.

The state Supreme Court last month denied the prosecution’s petition for review, letting the 2nd District order stand.

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Attys. Darrell Mavis and Steve Lopez said Tuesday that a juvenile court already has found Gevorgyan and Msryan unfit to be tried as minors. The prosecutors said they are unsure whether the court would order another fitness hearing.

Terteryan was charged as an adult under Proposition 21, but the appellate court found that he also was entitled to a preliminary hearing. He was 17 at the time of the killing.

The defendants were arrested and charged with murder before the case was presented to a grand jury. Those charges were dismissed after the indictment was returned.

Mark Geragos, who represents Terteryan, said the new charges should be dropped because the defendants have had two cases against them dismissed, usually the legal limit.

But Mavis said the second dismissal was legally “excusable” because of the uncertainty created by Proposition 21.

Since winning in appellate court, defense lawyers have argued vigorously that their clients should be freed.

“It is not fair for our clients,” said attorney Andrew Flier, who represents Gevorgyan. “Nineteen months and my guy has not said ‘not guilty’ yet. That’s outrageous.”

Prosecutors allege that Gevorgyan clubbed Aguirre with a tire iron before Terteryan stabbed the victim, and that Msryan drove them to the scene and tried to help Terteryan, her boyfriend, escape.

Gevorgyan and Terteryan were allegedly beating another student in front of the high school, where classes had just let out, when Aguirre jumped in to help his classmate, who was not seriously injured.

Before Tuesday’s hearing, the court was presented with a letter signed by nearly 200 people asking that the defendants remain jailed.

“We don’t want dangerous criminals on the street,” said David Rosas, president of Latinos Unidos Parents’ Assn. at Hoover High, and a neighbor of Aguirre’s family. “We don’t want kids to be in danger.”