Teen’s Killer Sentenced to 15-Year Term

After the father of the 17-year-old killed at a “Sweet 16� birthday party expressed his family’s grief, a judge sentenced the last of the six defendants Tuesday to 15 years to life in prison, the most severe punishment in the case.

Ari Tomasian, now 19, will serve nearly 13 years in state prison before he is eligible for parole, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Darrell Mavis.

“Any time we can have a gang member taken off the street, that is a good thing,� Mavis said.

Last month, a jury in Van Nuys found Tomasian guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Abtin Tangestanifar of Tarzana, a popular Taft High School student who his family and friends said wanted to become a doctor. Prosecutors, citing Tomasian’s gang affiliation, had asked the jury to find him guilty of first-degree murder, which carries a longer sentence: 25 years to life.

Tangestanifar was stabbed 11 times May 31, 1998, during a fight outside a birthday party in a million-dollar home in Encino. He was later pronounced dead at Northridge Hospital Medical Center.

At Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, the victim’s father, Khosrow Tangestanifar, described his family’s loss.

“We will grieve for eternity,� he said, pausing to maintain his composure.

Since his son’s murder, Tangestanifar said, he’s been unable to work regularly. “I feel a lot of pain physically and emotionally,� he said, reading his remarks from the witness stand.

“We miss him so much,� Tangestanifar said. “Abtin was a good son, a good brother, a good friend.�

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Tricia Ann Bigelow sentenced Tomasian after rejecting his lawyer’s motion for a new trial. Defense attorney Melvyn Douglas Sacks said after the hearing that he would appeal.

During sentencing, Bigelow said Tomasian was armed with a weapon and “appears to have thought about the way this [crime] was carried out.�

On Tuesday, the judge also ordered Tomasian and Peter Makjdomian, 19, who pleaded no contest to manslaughter and was sentenced last month to 11 years in prison, to reimburse the Tangestanifar family for medical and funeral costs totaling $10,826.

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Of the other teens arrested on suspicion of Tangestanifar’s murder, two were cleared of the charge at a preliminary hearing, one was convicted in Juvenile Court of assault and another pleaded no contest to manslaughter.

No one testified on Tomasian’s behalf.

Later, Tangestanifar said the amount of time that Tomasian spends in jail cannot bring back his son. His only wish, he said, is that “It won’t happen to any family.�