Murder defendant’s mother says he’s innocent
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The mother of a man charged with the murders of two members of an Anaheim Hills family said Tuesday that her son was blameless.
“Innocent. My son is innocent, you will see,” Tatyana Krasnoperova said to two reporters in a courthouse hallway as she and other relatives walked by. Arraignment for her son, Vitaliy Krasnoperov, 21, of West Hollywood, was postponed to July 6.
Scheduled to be arraigned the same day is Iftekhar Murtaza, 22, of Van Nuys, who also has been charged in the May 21 slayings of Jayprakash and Karishma Dhanak, the father and older sister of Shayona Dhanak, an 18-year-old UC Irvine student who had dated Murtaza.
Her mother, Leela, was badly bludgeoned and remains hospitalized.
Shayona Dhanak had ended her three-year relationship with Murtaza. Her devout Hindu parents frowned on her dating a Muslim, and her older sister had backed their decision, according to court documents.
Both suspects face two counts of murder and one of attempted murder and special-circumstance allegations of murder during a kidnapping and committing multiple murders.
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