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TESTIMONY: SHOOTING VICTIM 'HAD TO BE STOPPED'
C.J. Lin
Los Angeles Daily News
Aug 5 2010
In a recorded call from a prison telephone line, a suspect in the
2009 murder of a Burbank woman was told the victim had "to be stopped
somehow," according to testimony presented Wednesday.
Bella Stepanyan, a 27-year-old Glendale woman, was recorded telling
her boyfriend's brother, Armen Mangasaryan, about a problem she
was having with the victim, Jasmine Voskanian, according to phone
transcripts read Wednesday in Pasadena Superior Court.
Mangasaryan is the alleged gunman currently on trial for first-degree
murder, while Stepanyan has already pleaded no contest to being an
accessory to the murder.
Voskanian owed Stepanyan money and was misusing her bank account,
Stepanyan testified.
Stepanyan discussed the problem in Armenian over a recorded phone line;
her boyfriend, Art Mangasaryan - Armen's brother - was in prison and
had called her and she conferenced Armen in to the call.
Stepanyan also sent a text message to Mangasaryan telling him to "Take
care of it," regarding the cash that the victim owed Stepanyan. But
Stepanyan said the text only meant that Mangasaryan could make "a
simple phone call" to Voskanian in an attempt to get the money back.
Mangasaryan never showed signs of physical violence and had never
threatened Voskanian, Stepanyan said.
"Arm is always calm," said Stepanyan, who testified that Mangasaryan
told her he was at a party the night of the killing and that he had
been planning to go see a girlfriend.
Mangasaryan's co-defendant, Arpiar Terrgalstanyan, 21, also faces a
first-degree murder charge for allegedly driving him to Voskanian's
home.
Stepanyan was arrested after Voskanian's death and originally accused
of planning the murder. She later took a plea deal with prosecutors
and pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of accessory after the
fact and was sentenced in February to one year in jail and three
years of probation.
"I did not want to go to trial for murder," Stepanyan said in court.
"Because it was in my best interest. I was going home."
Voskanian, 49, had access to Stepanyan's bank account and was allegedly
using it for fraud before she was shot once in the doorway of her
Burbank home.
Stepanyan said Voskanian had only repaid about $1,000 of the $8,500
she owed, but noted she would "definitely not" get repaid if Voskanian
was dead.
"I was OK with her not paying the money," Stepanyan testified upon
cross-examination. "I would eventually get it back."
If convicted, Mangasaryan faces a prison sentence of 50 years to life.
Terrgalstanyan faces 26 years to life.
From: A. Papazian
C.J. Lin
Los Angeles Daily News
Aug 5 2010
In a recorded call from a prison telephone line, a suspect in the
2009 murder of a Burbank woman was told the victim had "to be stopped
somehow," according to testimony presented Wednesday.
Bella Stepanyan, a 27-year-old Glendale woman, was recorded telling
her boyfriend's brother, Armen Mangasaryan, about a problem she
was having with the victim, Jasmine Voskanian, according to phone
transcripts read Wednesday in Pasadena Superior Court.
Mangasaryan is the alleged gunman currently on trial for first-degree
murder, while Stepanyan has already pleaded no contest to being an
accessory to the murder.
Voskanian owed Stepanyan money and was misusing her bank account,
Stepanyan testified.
Stepanyan discussed the problem in Armenian over a recorded phone line;
her boyfriend, Art Mangasaryan - Armen's brother - was in prison and
had called her and she conferenced Armen in to the call.
Stepanyan also sent a text message to Mangasaryan telling him to "Take
care of it," regarding the cash that the victim owed Stepanyan. But
Stepanyan said the text only meant that Mangasaryan could make "a
simple phone call" to Voskanian in an attempt to get the money back.
Mangasaryan never showed signs of physical violence and had never
threatened Voskanian, Stepanyan said.
"Arm is always calm," said Stepanyan, who testified that Mangasaryan
told her he was at a party the night of the killing and that he had
been planning to go see a girlfriend.
Mangasaryan's co-defendant, Arpiar Terrgalstanyan, 21, also faces a
first-degree murder charge for allegedly driving him to Voskanian's
home.
Stepanyan was arrested after Voskanian's death and originally accused
of planning the murder. She later took a plea deal with prosecutors
and pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of accessory after the
fact and was sentenced in February to one year in jail and three
years of probation.
"I did not want to go to trial for murder," Stepanyan said in court.
"Because it was in my best interest. I was going home."
Voskanian, 49, had access to Stepanyan's bank account and was allegedly
using it for fraud before she was shot once in the doorway of her
Burbank home.
Stepanyan said Voskanian had only repaid about $1,000 of the $8,500
she owed, but noted she would "definitely not" get repaid if Voskanian
was dead.
"I was OK with her not paying the money," Stepanyan testified upon
cross-examination. "I would eventually get it back."
If convicted, Mangasaryan faces a prison sentence of 50 years to life.
Terrgalstanyan faces 26 years to life.
From: A. Papazian