Crime Rampage Draws Term of 129 to Life

A Glendale man who went on a deadly crime rampage, knowing he was about to be incarcerated for a previous crime, was sentenced to 129 years to life in prison Thursday.

William Tanielian, 35, was convicted of killing Milo Flores, 34, of Alhambra and injuring Flores’ sister when he crashed his vehicle into theirs during a high-speed police pursuit in Eagle Rock on May 23, 2001.

Tanielian and two other men were wanted by police for as many as 50 armed robberies at fast-food chicken restaurants in the San Fernando Valley, the Wilshire district and on the Westside in March, April and May 2001.

Tanielian was convicted in October of murder, evading police causing injury, 22 armed robberies and five attempted armed robberies, as well as assaulting a female nurse while he was being treated for wounds he suffered in the car crash, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Tal Kahana.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry sentenced Tanielian to 30 years to life for the murder plus 99 years and eight months in prison on the remaining counts.

The career criminal got such a long sentence because of prior convictions, including one for brandishing a gun at a driver on the freeway, according to court records.

Tanielian is currently serving a nine-year term after a conviction for grand theft for stealing $410 worth of compact discs. He pleaded no contest to the charge in a Pomona courtroom on Feb. 27, 2001, four days before the armed robberies began.

As a condition of his plea, Tanielian asked the court for 60 days to get his personal affairs in order before being sentenced and was released on $35,000 bail. Commissioner Wade D. Olson ordered him to return to court on April 24, 2001, for sentencing.

“If you don’t come back or you get in any kind of trouble when I finally get you back here, you’re going to get the [maximum sentence of] nine years,” Olson warned, according to the transcript.

Tanielian did not heed Olson’s warning.

Four days after leaving the Pomona courtroom, he and two others committed their first armed robbery, authorities said. He did not return to face Olson until captured by police a month later on the other charges.

Another suspect, Antonio Almandarez, 33, of Reseda, was killed in a shootout with police in Van Nuys later that same day. The third suspect, Carlos Cumplido, who is also charged in the robberies, is believed to have fled to Mexico, authorities said.

When police attempted to make arrests, Tanielian led them on a chase in the Glendale area that ended with the crash that killed Flores.

Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said that, in hindsight, prosecutors should have objected to the low bail for Tanielian on the grand theft charge because he had prior convictions. “It should not have happened this way,” she said. “This was unfortunate.”

Tanielian’s attorney, Andrew Flier, declined to criticize the handling of the earlier criminal case. “There was no indication that Mr. Tanielian was a potential armed robber or would flee police,” he said.

If Tanielian had turned himself in on the other case, “it would have been in the best interest of everyone: the community, the victim and Mr. Tanielian,” Flier said, noting that his client will now die in prison.