An Orange County Superior Court judge Friday dismissed a murder charge against a 59-year-old man accused of fatally shooting a neighbor at an Anaheim motel, but allowed prosecutors to pursue a voluntary manslaughter charge.<\/p>\n
Orange County Superior Court Judge Patrick Donahue declared a mistrial last month when jurors were split 11-1 for acquittal on second-degree murder after acquitting him of first-degree murder.<\/p>\n
Amir Karkehabadi of Anaheim was charged with murder with a sentencing enhancement for the discharge of a gun causing death. Jurors acquitted him of first-degree murder and were deadlocked 11-1 for acquittal on second-degree murder.<\/p>\n
Jurors told attorneys after the mistrial they were split on voluntary manslaughter as well.<\/p>\n
Donahue said it was \u201cextremely unlikely\u201d a jury could reach a verdict on second-degree murder, according to court records. But the judge felt there was a \u201creasonable possibility\u201d of a conviction on manslaughter.<\/p>\n
Karkehabadi faces up to 21 years in prison if he is convicted of voluntary manslaughter with a sentencing enhancement for the shooting. The retrial is set to begin March 13.<\/p>\n
Karkehabadi is accused of killing 56-year-old Steven Hawkins on June 14, according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n
Police were called to the Villa Inn, 733 S. Beach Blvd., between Orange Avenue and Ball Road, at 6:12 p.m. that day regarding the shooting, Anaheim Police Department Sgt. Matt Sutter said. Hawkins, who was shot once, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead an hour later, Sutter said.<\/p>\n
The two were living next door to each other at the motel and had run-ins before the shooting.<\/p>\n
Senior Deputy District Attorney Mark Birney argued it was first-degree murder because Karkehabadi shot Hawkins in the back as he was running away. Defense attorney Lee Stonum argued it was a case of self-defense because Hawkins frightened and harassed the defendant.<\/p>\n
Stonum argued in court papers requesting Donahue to dismiss the case that it was \u201cexceedingly unlikely that 12 jurors will ever see\u201d the facts in \u201cunanimous fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cSome jurors will likely see the third shot as an excessive and unreasonable use of force under the circumstances, while some will not parse the milliseconds and will agree that such force is justified when a violent criminal seeks to kick the hinges off of the door to your home and attack you. As such, this case could be tried multiple times, but the likelihood of unanimous verdict is exceedingly small.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karkehabadi had called Hawkins\u2019 girlfriend a \u201cwhore,\u201d prompting Hawkins to kick the defendant\u2019s door, Birney argued in the trial. The defendant brandished a gun and then shot Hawkins, Birney said.<\/p>\n
The defendant had also allegedly called Hawkins a \u201cblack monkey\u201d and \u201cbanana eater,\u201d Birney argued.<\/p>\n
Hawkins denied making the slurs to the defendant, Stonum said in a trial brief.<\/p>\n
Karkehabadi had lived at the motel for about six years. Hawkins called a motel manager to complain about the alleged slurs and they were asking the defendant to come out of his room before the shooting, Stonum said.<\/p>\n
Karkehabadi was too frightened to answer the door, and at one point Hawkins \u201cdonkey kicks\u201d the door, Stonum said. The motel manager told him to stop, but Hawkins did it again, cracking the door frame, Stonum said.<\/p>\n
Karkehabadi armed himself as Hawkins paced the landing \u201cranting and raving in a furor,\u201d Stonum said.<\/p>\n
When Karkehabadi slightly opened the door to talk to the motel manager, Hawkins \u201crushed\u201d the defendant, prompting him to fire three times, Stonum said.<\/p>\n
Hawkins \u201chad been harassing Karkehabadi in the days prior, banging on his door and their adjoining wall,\u201d Stonum said.<\/p>\n
Karkehabadi was charged with a racially motivated attack on a man and woman in Stanton Jan. 13, 2023, according to court records.<\/p>\n
He was accused of hitting and shoving a woman in a park, and when the man confronted him, Karkehabadi called him racial slurs and threatened to \u201cstomp his face,\u201d according to court records.<\/p>\n
When the woman asked him why he struck her, he said, \u201cBecause you bumped into me,\u201d according to court records.<\/p>\n
Issues were raised by defense attorneys regarding his mental health, but his attempts to have his case diverted failed, according to court records.<\/p>\n
Defense attorneys were successful in having the charges dismissed May 16, 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Orange County Superior Court judge Friday dismissed a murder charge against a 59-year-old man accused of fatally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,10772,65935,16047,53417,1331,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-127641","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-charge","12":"tag-dismisses","13":"tag-judge","14":"tag-motel","15":"tag-murder","16":"tag-shooting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}