Testimony during a pretrial hearing reveals intimate details from Sina Khankhanian’s girlfriend about his state of mind last year when, prosecutors say, he drove off Pacific Coast Highway and hit and killed Shane.
By Knowles Adkisson / The Malibu Times
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathryn Solorzano on Friday told the man accused of striking and killing 13-year-old Emily Shane with his car on Pacific Coast Highway last spring that he exhibited a “wantonness and conscious disregard for life” in the hours leading up to Shane’s death.
The judge’s comment ended the two-day preliminary hearing at the Airport Branch Courthouse in Los Angeles during which testimony was heard from the girlfriend of 27-year-old defendant Sina Khankhanian, as well as from witnesses to the April 3, 2010 accident that killed Shane. Solorzano ordered an arraignment for Jan. 28, at which Khankhanian will officially be charged with one count of murder in Shane’s death, and submit a plea of either guilty or not guilty.
If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is being held on $3 million bail.
Prosecutors expect a trial to begin sometime in the summer or fall.
The hearing marked the first time Shane’s parents and other family members had heard intimate details from Khankhanian’s girlfriend about his state of mind then, and from motorists who witnessed Khankhanian driving erratically and law enforcement officials who arrived at the scene of the accident after the crash.
“We’re pleased [with the judge’s decision],” Shane’s father, Michel Shane, said. “The biggest disappointment is the fact that he drove for so long and there was no law enforcement, on a Saturday.”
According a report from the Malibu / Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station there had been six emergency calls made regarding Khankhanian’s erratic driving, with the first four taking place before Shane was struck.
Sheriff’s Detective Mark Lillienfeld told The Malibu Times in April that he could not say whether the fatality could have been avoided.
The family has since filed a lawsuit for monetary claims against the county and state, saying the agencies had neglected safety on the highway. The family also says Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials failed to respond in a timely manner to the emergency phone calls about the erratic driving of Khankhanian.
At the hearing Friday, nearly 20 witnesses testified for the prosecution to Khankhanian’s actions and state of mind before, during and after the crash that killed Emily Shane.
Khankhanian’s girlfriend Mardi Martinez testified that he had expressed suicidal thoughts as early as 10 days before the crash. On April 3, Khankhanian left a two-page suicide note at the house he shared with Martinez, along with a check and a letter indicating he wanted to leave his finances to Martinez. He then drove off in his blue 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer.
Several witnesses testified to the car’s reckless driving in a 17-mile stretch that included Topanga Canyon Boulevard, then north on PCH through Malibu until the accident near the intersection with Heathercliff Road, where, in addition to striking Shane, the car collided with a power pole.
Sheriff’s Deputies and firefighters who arrived after the accident testified that Khankhanian’s behavior at the crime scene was confrontational and profane. He told several law enforcement officers that he “meant to do it,” referencing hitting the power pole on purpose. Witnesses also testified that Khankhanian expressed no remorse upon learning the girl had been killed in the crash. He told one firefighter that he had had four glasses of wine, as well as four pills each of the prescription medications Klonopin and Ativan. Klonopin is used to treat seizure disorders or panic disorder. Ativan is used to treat anxiety or anxiety cause by severe depression.