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South Pasadena Father Charged With Killing His Son To Be Extradited From Las Vegas
A Las Vegas judge ordered on Tuesday that Aramazd Andressian Sr., who has been accused of murdering his five-year-old son, be extradited back to Los Angeles to be prosecuted on murder charges, reports CBS 2.
Last week—about three months after his son, Aramazd Andressian Jr., went missing—the L.A. County district attorney's office filed a murder charge against Andressian Sr., and on Friday arrested him in Vegas—booking him under $10 million bail, reports ABC 7.
Sheriff Jim McDonnell said at a Monday press conference that Andressian was arrested in part because he was deemed a "flight risk." Investigators said they believed that he was intending to flee to another country from which he could not be extradited. Prior to Friday's arrest, Andressian Sr. was said to be "socializing" in Vegas for the past 47 days. Investigators also noted that he'd dyed his hair and shaved off his beard—they say that these actions, as well as his stay in Vegas— were inconsistent with the actions of a parent whose child had gone missing. “I can only speak for myself. If my son was missing, I would be doing things that Ana (suspect’s wife) was doing - circulating fliers, looking for your son. He was not doing that. He was socializing in Vegas,” said Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau Lt. Joe Mendoza during the conference.
After the murder charges were filed, detectives said they believe that Andressian Sr. had killed his son to inflict revenge on Ana Estevez, the boy's mother. Mendoza said that the two were engaged in a "tumultuous divorce," as well as a custody battle over Andressian Jr.
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The child has been missing since April 22. Andressian Sr., who shared custody with Estevez, was supposed to drop him off to his mother, but both the father and son never showed up at the appointed time and location. The same day that the boy was reported missing, Andressian Sr. was found unconscious in Arroyo Park in South Pasadena. He was next to his parked BMW, which investigators say had been doused with gasoline. Andressian Sr. would later tell authorities that he had no recollection of what had happened to his son. He was held briefly on charges of child endangerment, but was released on lack of evidence. Several full-scale searches of the park had failed to find Andressian Jr.
Jackie Lacey, L.A. County district attorney, told CBS that she's confident that Andressian Sr. could be convicted even if a body has not been uncovered. "As time goes on and there's no sighting of a person, of the victim, obviously a case gets a bit stronger, but it just forces us in law enforcement to work harder to look for evidence that would indicate the person is guilty of murder," Lacey said. "I would not have authorized the filing of this case unless I believed that a jury would hear the evidence and convict the defendant of murder." If convicted of murder, Andressian Sr. faces a maximum of 25 years to life in prison.
California now has 30 days to take Andressian Sr. back to Los Angeles. Deputy Lisa Jansen of the sheriff’s Information Bureau told LAist that the department has not yet gotten word on when Andressian Sr. will be coming back to Los Angeles. "He's not coming over at this time. We have not yet gotten that information, and he'll stay there until we receive further word," Jansen said.
LAist reached out to Lieutenant Mendoza and the L.A. County district attorney's office, but have yet to hear back at time of publication.
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