Ellen and Michel Shane announced Tuesday that their daughter Emily’s murderer would remain behind bars for at least another three years.
The announcement came following a parole hearing for Sina Khankhanian, the man convicted of second-degree murder for intentionally striking and killing 13-year-old Emily Shane with his car in 2010 while she was walking along Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. In 2012, Khankhanian was sentenced to 15 years to life for the crime, but the California Department of Corrections surprised the Shane family by announcing he would be up for parole after serving only 11 years in prison.
“I’m not a vindictive person; if there was remorse, if this was a singular incident, an accident, a breakdown, I may be able to forgive—”may” is the critical component,” Michel wrote in an impassioned guest column in The Malibu Times last month. “I can’t. This man ruined and changed so many lives. For him to be carefree and forgiven of his crime of snatching a young girl’s life because he was having a bad day, in my books, is unforgivable.”
On Tuesday, Nov. 2, the Shanes appeared on KFI AM 640 to announce Khankhanian would not be paroled.
“They continued his sentence for another three years,” Michel told KFI hosts, John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou. “In three years he’s eligible to go up for parole again.”
“Did he express remorse and all of that stuff?” one of the hosts asked.
“Yes, he did,” Ellen said. “All he did this time was—‘I’ve changed, I’m a different person,’ and on and on.”
The Shanes were concerned that Khankhanian would be granted parole because LA County District Attorney George Gascón’s office was not sending an attorney to advocate for him to remain imprisoned. The couple confirmed Gascón’s office was not represented at the hearing.
“I have a life sentence and there’s no parole for my life sentence,” Michel said Tuesday.