Man gets 4 life terms in prison for killing 4 in mass shooting at L.A. restaurant
A Los Angeles judge Tuesday sentenced a 33-year-old man to multiple life terms in prison for killing four people at a San Fernando Valley restaurant more than six years ago.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo imposed two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole on Nerses Arthur Galstyan, and tacked on two additional life terms.
A jury of nine men and three women convicted Galstyan in March of two counts of first-degree murder and one count each of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and aggravated mayhem.
The April 3, 2010, mass shooting occurred at the Hot Spot Mediterranean restaurant along Riverside Drive in Valley Village. People had gathered there for a memorial honoring a friend who had died in a traffic accident, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Jonathan Chung, who led the prosecution on the case.
Chung said that Galstyan got into a verbal dispute with several acquaintances inside the restaurant. He briefly left, snatched a gun from his car, returned to the restaurant and opened fire.
Hayk Yegnanyan, 25; Vardan Tofalyan, 31; Sarkis Karadjian, 26; and Harut Baburyan, 28, were killed.
The gunman was recorded on surveillance video as he left the restaurant, and he was arrested shortly after the slayings at a home near Seattle.
During the trial, defense lawyer Alex Kessel argued that the shootings were an act of self-defense. He claimed that one of the victims, Yegnanyan, was intimidating Galstyan and his brother.
Kessel told jurors that two of the victims came to the restaurant with guns and tried to frighten Galstyan, who felt threatened enough to begin shooting.
Some of the men had allegedly been active in organized crime and gun running, and had convictions for fraud and weapons violations, police said.
Investigators with the Los Angeles Police Robbery Homicide Division said Galstyan was tired of being humiliated and forced to do menial tasks.
Less than a week after the restaurant killings, a federal grand jury indicted Galstyan on separate charges of selling firearms without a license and possession of a firearm with the serial numbers removed.
In 2009, he and one of the victims, Tofalyan, allegedly sold illegal firearms to an informant working with federal agents.
Twitter: @MattHjourno.
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