Murder Retrial Winds Down

A defense attorney urged San Fernando jurors Wednesday to acquit 16-year-old Michael Demirdjian of murder, contending that another teenager bludgeoned two boys to death last year on a La Crescenta playground.

Adam Walker, who is now 20, “killed those boys in a fit of rage” while Demirdjian watched, attorney Charles T. Mathews said in his closing argument.

But prosecutors argued that an overwhelming amount of evidence points to Demirdjian’s guilt in the killings of 13-year-old Christopher McCulloch and 14-year-old Blaine Talmo Jr.

“Nobody, nobody deserves to die like this,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Steve Barshop said.

Barshop startled jurors and the courtroom audience when he projected a crime-scene photo onto a giant screen, showing the bloodied bodies of the two victims, their faces beaten beyond recognition.

The victims’ mothers covered their eyes and sobbed. Demirdjian showed no reaction.

Prosecutors allege that Demirdjian, who was 15 at the time of the July 2000 killings, conspired with others, mostly teenagers, to kill the boys because of a botched drug deal.

The prosecutors named four of the others as “co-conspirators” in crimes that led to the killings, but none has been charged.

Demirdjian is on trial for the second time in the killings. His first trial, held in Pasadena Superior Court, ended in April with a deadlocked jury.

Defendant Could Get Life in Prison

The case was moved to San Fernando for scheduling reasons.

Jury deliberations in the retrial are expected to begin today. If convicted, Demirdjian faces a maximum punishment of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Mathews contends that Walker used a rock and a bench to kill the victims, and that Walker’s friends covered up the crime. Glendale police had arrested Walker based on statements Demirdjian made, but did not charge Walker and have since said he is not a suspect.

The retrial in the courtroom of Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen includes most of the evidence from the first prosecution.

But both the prosecution and defense changed their strategies.

Barshop focused his argument on the alleged conspiracy involving Demirdjian and the others.

The week before the slayings, Demirdjian tried to buy $660 worth of marijuana from Walker, who took the money without turning over the drugs, Barshop said.

Part of the money belonged to Damian Kim, 18, who lived in La Crescenta, Barshop said.

Demirdjian, Kim and others had planned to ambush Walker to get the money back, but the revenge plot ended with the robbery and killings of McCulloch and Talmo, the latter of whom had introduced Demirdjian to Walker, Barshop said.

The prosecutor cited two new legal grounds for a murder conviction, both absent from the first trial.

He asserted that Demirdjian could be found guilty of murder even if he didn’t commit the killings but “aided or abetted” them.

Barshop also argued that Demirdjian is culpable in the killings as a conspirator with the four uncharged suspects.

Barshop repeatedly displayed photos of Kim and the three others: his sister Kristina Kim, 21, Joseph Song, 19, and Marion Kim, 18, all of whom were living in the La Crescenta area at the time of the killings.

“Whether they will be prosecuted is not something you can consider,” Barshop told jurors.

Mathews argued that the prosecution’s conspiracy theory doesn’t make sense.

Records of calls made from Damian Kim’s cellular phone show he was driving to Palm Springs when the killings occurred, Mathews said.

The defense attorney also said Walker had a greater motive to kill than Demirdjian because Walker was desperate for money.

Mathews said Demirdjian was a friend of Talmo, and would not have killed him over the boy’s minor role in the alleged drug deal.

“That to me is the logic gap that cries out in this case,” Mathews said.

Demirdjian had Talmo’s wallet and clock--which police found in Demirdjian’s kitchen trash after the slayings--because Talmo probably gave them to him for safekeeping while the boys played basketball in the hours before the killings, Mathews said.

In the first trial, Demirdjian testified that Walker had given him Talmo’s wallet and clock after Walker committed the killings. Demirdjian did not take the stand in the second trial.

Mathews also argued that the crime scene investigation was sloppy and evidence was mishandled.