Sina Khankhanian, 28, faces a sentence of 16 years to life.
By Knowles Adkisson / Associate Editor
A man who was despondent over losing his job and driving recklessly along Pacific Coast Highway, crashing his car and killing 13-year-old Emily Shane in 2010, was convicted Thursday of second-degree murder.
Sina Khankhanian, 28, faces up to 16 years to life in prison when he is sentenced June 15. Khankhanian’s defense attorney, Bradley Brunon, said that people convicted of similar second-degree murder charges in California typically do not get out on parole until they have served 25 or 30 years in prison. Brunon said the conviction would probably be appealed, “but that decision hasn’t been made yet.”
Prosecutors argued that Khankhanian was suicidal over the loss of his job and problems with his fianc/e on April 3, 2010, and drove his Mitsubishi Lancer recklessly for 17 miles at speeds up to 70 mph before he crashed near Heathercliff Road, killing Emily Rose Shane, who was walking along the street.
The eight-man, four-woman jury began deliberations Tuesday afternoon and came to its decision Thursday. It was the second trial in the case. The first trial earlier this year ended in a hung jury.
“I am relieved that the legal part of this horrible tragedy is behind us,” said Ellen Shane, Emily’s mother. “Nothing is going to bring [Emily] back, but at least justice was done for her.”
The Shane family created a foundation in Emily’s name—emilyshane.org—to reward people for doing good deeds and to offer tutoring services to youngsters.
“I want to thank the entire community for standing behind us at this time,” said Leigh Shane, Emily Shane’s sister. “Especially everyone who came to the courthouse and sent us messages. We wouldn’t have been able to get through this without them.”
Brunon argued that his client was not guilty of murder, saying that at most he was guilty of vehicular manslaughter. He denied that the fatal crash was the result of a suicide attempt.
“The conviction just compounds the tragedy of one family whose life had been devastated by what happened,” Brunon said. “Now you’ve got two families suffering devastating losses. Under California law this kid’s going to serve 25 or 30 years before he’s given parole. He has no criminal record. It’s just a very hard thing to accept.”
In the first trial, the jury had deadlocked with a 7-5 vote in favor of conviction. This time, the voting was unanimous for conviction.
One major difference between the first and second trials was that the prosecution played a taped telephone conversation that took place from prison between Khankhanian and his former fianc/e, Mardi Martinez. In the conversation, Khankhanian encourages Martinez to cry on the witness stand when she testified in the second trial.
Inmates in California correctional facilities are informed upon incarceration that their telephone conversations may be taped, and Brunon said his client was made aware of that.
When asked if he advised Khankhanian not to speak about the trial over the telephone, Brunon said, “I can’t really go into the advice I gave him. It’s just unfortunate. I think it just depicted him in a false light. It just sounded a lot different than he actually is.”
Brunon said he had limited access to the tapes, which were released to him about four days before they were played in court. There were about 30 hours of untranscribed audio and, according to Brunon, the audio played in court was unrepresentative of the body of the conversations.
Brunon said the conversation “unfairly portrayed his mental condition” two years after the accident, when Khankhanian had been on medication for autism and Tourette Syndrome and he was “just not the same person, but that’s hard to communicate.”