Prosecutor Says Drug Rip-Off Led to Slayings

Describing a teenage underworld of drug deals, cellular conspiracies and coded threats, a prosecutor told jurors Monday that Michael Hryar Demirdjian bludgeoned two boys to death on a La Crescenta playground because he was cheated out of money after he tried to buy marijuana.

“The overview of this case is a robbery-murder,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Steve Barshop said in his opening statement in Pasadena Superior Court. “The underbelly of this case is a drug deal gone bad--a rip.”

But Demirdjian’s attorney, Charles T. Mathews, said the boy, who turns 16 today, is innocent and was merely a witness to a crime committed by a 19-year-old man.

“Some of the evidence that the district attorney says incriminates Michael Demirdjian is misleading, screwed up,” Mathews said in his opening statement in the courtroom of Judge Joseph De Vanon.

Demirdjian, who will take the witness stand, “will tell you in no uncertain terms that he never harmed [the victims],” Mathews said.

Demirdjian is charged in the first-degree murders of 13-year-old Christopher McCulloch and 14-year-old Blaine Talmo Jr., whose bloody, battered bodies were found July 23 on an elementary school playground.

If convicted, Demirdjian faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

On Monday, Barshop outlined a tangled web of relationships among Demirdjian and other teenagers that is at the crux of the crime, he said.

A week before the slayings, Barshop said, Demirdjian tried to buy a type of high-potency marijuana called “chronic” from a 19-year-old named Adam Walker, who was recommended to Demirdjian by Talmo, who also “buys weed” from Walker.

But after Demirdjian handed over $660, Walker and two associates drove off with the cash without giving him any drugs, Barshop said.

“Within 15 minutes of the burn . . . on Adam Walker’s cellular phone or pager comes up the number 187,” Barshop said. “One-eighty-seven happens to be the California Penal Code section number, as well as street parlance, for murder.”

Damian Kim, 18, also was connected to the drug deal, Barshop said. Part of the $660 allegedly came from Kim, who prosecutors say is also a suspect in the slayings.

During his opening statement, Barshop showed a video of the scene of the crime, which he said occurred after 10:31 p.m. on July 22--when Talmo, using Demirdjian’s cellular phone, called his mother.

Phone records also show 48 phone calls between Demirdjian and Kim between the day they were “jacked” of their money and the night of the slayings, including 12 calls between them on July 22, Barshop said. There also were a number of calls between Walker and Demirdjian, he said.

“They [were] setting up Adam Walker to get their money back,” Barshop said.

Defendant a Victim of Racism, Lawyer Says

The prosecution contends that Demirdjian went to the playground that day to try to get his money back. Police found Talmo’s wallet in a kitchen trash bag in Demirdjian’s home but didn’t find any money.

But defense attorney Mathews said Demirdjian and the victims were friends who had played basketball together just hours before the slayings. At the playground, where the boys were drinking wine, Walker suddenly showed up and got into an argument with McCulloch, Mathews said.

“Adam Walker flipped out . . . and exploded in a rage,” Mathews said. Walker first pummeled McCulloch and when Talmo tried to intervene, killed Talmo too, Mathews said.

Demirdjian bent over the victims’ bodies and touched them to see if they were still alive, Mathews said, before running home.

Walker’s friends and associates later tried to blame Demirdjian, telling police that “this was a crime committed by black people,” Mathews said, suggesting Demirdjian was singled out for prosecution because of racism. Demirdjian, Mathews said, is half white and half black and is often referred to as “black” by people in his neighborhood.