Vendor Is Given 39 Years in Killing

An ice-cream vendor who was convicted of first-degree murder after he turned down a prosecution plea-bargain offer of 16 years in prison was sentenced Friday to 39 years to life.

San Fernando Superior Court Judge David Perez gave the maximum sentenced allowed to Armik Markarian, a native of Tehran who has been granted political asylum in the United States.

A jury last month convicted Markarian, 34, of murdering his father-in-law with a rifle and assaulting his estranged wife, Maria, by shooting her through the hand and beating her with the rifle. He was also convicted of attempting to murder his mother-in-law with the same weapon. But the rifle was empty and didn’t fire.

Markarian’s attorney, Robert Sheahen, had advised his client to accept the earlier offer and plead guilty to second-degree murder. The sentence would have been 16 years. “Mr. Markarian chose to go to trial for reasons known only to Mr. Markarian,” the lawyer told the judge.

Plea by Defense

Sheahen urged Perez not to impose the maximum penalty. “I hate to see a man so penalized for a lack of appreciation of the American judicial system,” Sheahen said of Markarian.

Perez said he imposed the stiffest sentence possible because of the level of violence involved in Markarian’s rampage in the North Hollywood home of his wife’s parents on Sept. 10, 1984.

Markarian has told a probation officer since his conviction that he believed his wife and her mother were practicing witchcraft and that he was being controlled by witchcraft.