A State Appeals Court this week upheld a second-degree murder conviction against the suicidal man who drove recklessly and killed 13-year old Emily Shane in Malibu as she walked along Pacific Coast Highway in 2010.
According to City News Service, a three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense’s argument that jurors weren’t instructed properly in the trial of Sina Khankhanian, who was convicted of the April 3, 2010 death.
The justices wrote in a 14-page ruling that “from the evidence that defendant was traveling at about 70 MPH when he made a deliberate sharp right turn causing his car to drive up the embankment where Emily was walking, it is reasonable to infer that defendant intended to hit Emily as he proceeded toward the pole.”
The justices also wrote that Khankhanian knew “to a substantial certainty that the force would cause her death.”
Khankhanian is currently serving a 15-year-to-life term for the girl’s death, but the court panel ruled he should be re-sentenced due to an enhancement included on the murder charge.
The weapon enhancement involves the use of the vehicle and ran at the same time as the sentence on the murder count. The justices agreed with the defense that the enhancement must either be imposed consecutively, which would add a year to the sentence or stricken.
On the day of the crash, prosecutors said Khankhanian left a suicide note, drove haphazardly along Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway for 17 miles, zigzagging through traffic and passing vehicles along shoulders and on the wrong side of the road before crashing in to the teenager near Heathercliff Road.
Prosecutors noted “numerous near-collisions all along PCH” and Khankhanian had been “driving so aggressively and erratically and recklessly” when he made a quick right turn and hit the teen head on.
Khankhanian was convicted by the second jury to hear the case after the first jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict.