With a trial expected to begin this week, a judge on Tuesday dismissed the case. The prosecution refiles a charge of second-degree murder for 27-year-old Sina Khankhanian, who pleaded not guilty.
By Knowles Adkisson / The Malibu Times
In a surprising reversal, the legal process for the man charged in the death of 13-year-old Emily Shane last year is starting from scratch. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner dismissed a second-degree murder charge against 27-year-old Sina Khankhanian Tuesday morning at the Airport Branch Courthouse in Los Angeles. Deputy District Attorney Marna Miller refiled the second-degree murder charge in the afternoon, to which Khankhanian once again pleaded not guilty.
Trial proceedings were expected to begin this week, after a judge on Sept. 8 dismissed a motion filed by the defense that would have given the jury the option of convicting Khankhanian of gross vehicular manslaughter instead of second-degree murder.
The Malibu Times could not reach Miller for comment Tuesday. Michel Shane, father of Emily Shane, said Miller told him she could not schedule enough eyewitnesses to the crime in time for the impending trial. Facing a deadline required by law, she decided to refile the case and start over.
“[Miller] said this was typical of what goes on in this kind of case,” Shane said Tuesday. “So they refiled this afternoon and everything stays the same.”
A preliminary hearing will take place Oct. 27. Bradley Brunon, Khankhanian’s attorney, said he expected the hearing to take one or two days. A trial could begin in December.
Shane was killed April 3 last year when an allegedly suicidal Khankhanian drove his car off Pacific Coast Highway, hitting her as she walked home from a friend’s house and then colliding with a power pole. Khankhanian pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder in January. A pretrial conference to set a trial date was postponed multiple times while the prosecution and defense reviewed psychological testing performed on Khankhanian.
Prior to Tuesday’s events, a trial was expected to begin this week after Superior Court Judge Katherine Mader on Sept. 8 denied the defense’s request to add gross vehicular manslaughter as a sentencing option. Brunon argues Khankhanian did not intend to hit Shane but instead meant to end his own life by hitting the power pole. Mader’s ruling, Brunon said, leaves the jury little option but to give Khankhanian a sentence he feels is too harsh.
“He’s in my estimation guilty of some form of vehicular manslaughter because of his negligent driving,” Brunon told The Malibu Times. “I think to force the jury to say ‘not guilty’ when he did something … is a difficult choice and I think an unfair choice.”
Second-degree murder is defined under California law as the intentional killing of another person but without premeditation. It carries a sentence of 15 years to life imprisonment in state prison.
Gross vehicular manslaughter is the unintentional killing of another person, through gross negligence, while driving a motor vehicle. “Gross negligence” is defined as a reckless disregard for the safety of others and includes such acts as speeding, reckless driving and drunk driving. It carries a sentence of one to 10 years in a county jail or state prison.
Brunon said the prosecution was “kind of disorganized,” and that they would be putting the jury in an awkward position.
“I think [the prosecution] would be terribly embarrassed if the jury somehow decided to acquit him,” Brunon said. “I don’t know why they won’t put all the potential crimes on the table and let the jury decide.”
But Shane disagreed with the idea that Khankhanian could only be guilty of recklessness.
“I would have been outraged,” Shane said of the possibility that Khankhanian could face gross vehicular manslaughter. “He was behaving like a spoiled child that was angry because of a broken-up relationship, losing a job, whatever the reasons may be. And like a spoiled child or a baby, he was lashing out at the world around him.”
Shane also doubted the defense’s claim that Khankhanian only meant to hurt himself. At the preliminary hearing in January, it was revealed that Khankhanian left a suicide note before leaving his house April 3. Several witnesses testified to Khankhanian’s reckless driving on a 17-mile stretch that included Topanga Canyon Boulevard, then north on Pacific Coast Highway through Malibu until the accident near the intersection with Heathercliff Road.
“From the top of Topanga to Heathercliff, I would say there’s a thousand places he could have killed himself and not hurt anyone,” Shane said.
Shane expressed ambivalence at what an eventual trial might bring for his family.
“There will never be closure,” Shane said. “Say he gets 25 years. At some point he’s going to be up for parole, and we are going to attend the parole hearings to make sure he doesn’t get out. Unfortunately we lost our precious daughter, and have now adopted a murderer that is going to be a part of our lives forever.”