Driver to Stand Trial in Electrocutions After Crash in Valley Village

Two women trying to rescue the driver were electrocuted on Aug. 22, 2012 in Valley Village

A 20-year-old man was ordered to stand trial in the electrocutions last August of two women who tried to rescue him after he crashed into a power pole and a fire hydrant and became trapped in his SUV.

Arman Samsonian, of Glendale, will be tried on charges of felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence in the deaths of Irma Yolanda Zamora, 40, of Burbank, and Stacey Lee Schreiber, 39, of Valley Village.

They were killed trying to rescue Samsonian who was trapped in his SUV that hit a light pole and sheared a fire hydrant on Aug. 22, 2012 in the 12000 block of West Magnolia Boulevard.

Zamora and Schreiber were electrocuted when they stepped into a pool of water that had come into contact with exposed wires electrified by 4,800 volts.

Samsonian’s lawyer, Andrew Flier, on Thursday said his client, who faces up to seven years and four months in prison if convicted, is innocent.

“How could anyone reasonably know that two people were going to die by electrocution?” said Flier. “When all the facts are flushed out, I think that everyone will see that my kid’s a good kid, that it was an accident, that it was a terrible thing that happened.”

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