Letters for Badalyan plead for no jail time

Paul M. Anderson

GLENDALE -- Imprisoning her son’s killer won’t bring him back and it

won’t ease her pain.

So says Sona Demirchyan in a letter to the judge who will sentence

Artiom Badalyan in January.

Badalyan, 18, pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter.in

October. Last year, Badalyan was arrested after a scuffle over a gun led

to the fatal shooting of his best friend Avetis “Avo” Demirchyan.

“Whatever happened to my son Avo was a tragic accident,” Sona

Demirchyan said in an English translation of her letter to Pasadena

Superior Court Judge Victor Person. The letter was originally written in

Armenian.

“(Badalyan) wouldn’t wish for my son Avo’s loss. And, also, my son

wouldn’t want Artiom to be jailed,” she wrote in the letter.

“I wouldn’t wish for it either. For Artiom to be in jail would not

ease my sadness at all,” Sona Demirchyan said.

Despite her calls for leniency, prosecutors said they will push for a

tough sentence at Badalyan’s Jan 10 hearing.

In a motion filed by Deputy Dist. Atty. Patricia Wilkinson,

prosecutors asked that Badalyan serve a six-year prison term because they

have alleged he brought the gun to the fight.

‘When the defendant shot the gun, the street was full of people, both

engaged in the fight and innocent bystanders,” the motion read. “The

defendant’s conduct exposed all of these people, not just the ultimate

victim, to the risk of injury or death.”

Defense attorney Mark Geragos denied that his client brought the gun

to the fight. Badalyan told police in an Oct. 9 interview that Demirchyan

carried the gun to the fight and that Badalyan took it away from him to

discourage its use, according to a police report in the court file.

Geragos said he’ll push for probation.

The fight stemmed from a lunch dispute at Hoover High School in

September, 1998. Demirchyan and another boy planned to meet after school

and work it out, authorities said.

But the after-school meeting boiled over into a fight. During the

scuffle, Demirchyan was shot in the stomach and died two days later.

Badalyan went to the meeting with Demirchyan to “play peacemaker,”

Geragos said.

On the ride over, though, witnesses said Badalyan brandished a gun.

The dead boy’s mother wasn’t alone in her pleadings to the court.

Several other friends also wrote letters appealing to Person to spare

more jail time for Badalyan, according to court records obtained by the

News-Press Friday.

The letters paint a portrait of a young man with a big smile, manners

and a penchant for being neat.

The officials who watched over Badalyan while he did a year in a

juvenile detention center also wrote letters begging leniency.

Badalyan left a good impression during his stay in custody, according

to three jail employees who got to know him.

“(Badalyan) understands the discipline it takes to become a

self-reliant young man who makes good decisions,” they wrote in a note

submitted to the court. Garen Gevorkian, Badalyan’s friend for the past

five years, said in a letter that jail would “drive this individual

insane.”

“Ever since the tragic accident, Artiom still can’t come to his

senses,” Gevorkian wrote. “Although it was an accident, he keeps blaming

himself.”

Gevorkian said Badalyan needs to be close to his loved ones.

“Artiom can’t forgive himself for accidentally taking the life of his

own dear friend Avo. He has been going through nightmares and suffering,”

Gevorkian said. “I believe he’ll have that for the rest of his life.”

Gevorkian also wrote that Badalyan needs the care of a psychiatrist

more than prison.

Several other friends of the Badalyan family wrote saying the incident

has affected him and that he would be better off out of jail.

On the ride over, though, witnesses said Badalyan brandished a gun.