Man Who Killed Ex-Boss Gets 2 Terms of 25 to Life

A computer programmer will spend at least 50 years in prison for fatally shooting his former boss at a Camarillo software company, a judge decided Friday.

Judge Herbert Curtis sentenced Hollywood resident Mikhail Khaimchayev to consecutive 25-year-to-life sentences for gunning down computer executive Sheldon Snyder.

A jury convicted Khaimchayev, an immigrant from Uzbekistan, last month for the January 1999 killing at the computer firm. Khaimchayev, who had recently been fired, told co-workers and detectives that he shot Snyder because the executive refused to rehire him.

As Curtis announced the sentence, Khaimchayev sat quietly with his legs shackled while flanked by his attorney and a Russian-language interpreter.

Curtis rejected a request by Khaimchayev’s attorney that his client be allowed to serve the sentence in a state mental hospital. Instead, the judge gave the burly bearded defendant one prison term of 25 years to life on his first-degree murder conviction and added another term of 25 years to life for using a gun.

Deputy Public Defender Howard Asher told the court that Khaimchayev, 31, is remorseful for his action.

“It was not justified nor can Mr. Khaimchayev explain it,” Asher said.

During the weeklong trial, Khaimchayev’s attorney did not dispute that his client walked into Postal Innovations about a month after he had been laid off, greeted a receptionist and shot Snyder nine times at close range. Khaimchayev then turned the gun on himself, but later recovered from abdominal wounds.

Asher told the jury that Khaimchayev was not mentally stable and therefore could not have rationally planned the killing. A psychologist called by the defense testified that he had displayed symptoms of being psychotic at the time of the killing.

But witnesses testified that Khaimchayev had called the office prior to his arrival to make sure Snyder was there. After deliberating for nearly two days, the jury returned a guilty verdict.

Khaimchayev emigrated in 1996 from Uzbekistan, formerly part of the Soviet Union. He had hoped to launch a career as a software programmer, trial witnesses said, but his lack of computer skills and problems with the English language prompted Snyder to fire him after a few months.

In a letter retrieved after the shooting, Khaimchayev blamed his former employer for preventing him from achieving success in the United States.

At Friday’s hearing, Snyder’s mother, Patricia, spoke of her grief at losing her son after another son, Cliff, died of a brain aneurysm the year before.

“There is no way you can ever say how this has affected us,” said a visibly shaken Snyder, who traveled from her home in Pennsylvania to attend the sentencing. “Sheldon was very special to us. We will never be the same. He never did anything to this man.”

Other family members passed a sealed letter to the judge but declined to speak in court. Prosecutor Bob Calvert said he was satisfied with the sentence.

“I feel a lot like the victim’s mother,” Calvert said. “The evidence is there, but I still can’t make sense of it.”