A jury has recommended that a 34-year-old man be sentenced to death for killing four people outside a Northridge boarding home three years ago.
Ka Pasasouk is due back in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom for sentencing on Feb. 5.
He was convicted of first-degree murder for the December 2012 shooting deaths of Teofilo Navales, 49, of Castaic; Robert Calabia, 34, of Los Angeles; Amanda Ghossein, 24, of Monterey Park; and Jennifer Kim, 26, of Montebello outside a Northridge boarding house.
Prosecutors told jurors that the defendant was "fueled by drugs and alcohol'' and had the "perfect opportunity for vengeance'' along with the perfect opportunity for a robbery when he came across Navales -- with whom he had an altercation months earlier -- in a dark and confined area and shot him twice.
Calabia, Ghossein and Kim were shot to death to silence them as potential witnesses as Pasasouk was "trying to get away with murder," prosecutors said.
The four victims planned to meet a friend who lived at the boarding house and then head to a casino to gamble.
One of Pasasouk's attorneys, James Goldstein, had urged jurors to consider the lesser offense of second-degree murder for the four killings. He told the panel that his client's judgment was "impaired'' by being under the influence and that he could not have premeditated and deliberated the killings.
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Pasasouk was arrested two days later at a hotel-casino near the Las Vegas Strip.
Last year, family members of the victims filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey and Probation Chief Jerry Powers, alleging that they didn't do enough to protect the public from Pasasouk once he was released from prison in January 2012.
Following a subsequent arrest for drug possession, Pasasouk was released from custody and put into a drug diversion program, despite a long criminal history, according to the plaintiffs' attorney.
A judge dismissed the civil rights case in August, ruling that the government officials were immune from liability.
City News Service contributed to this report.
