Convicted killer awaits sentence

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Thursday, Dec. 9, 2004 | 9:45 a.m.

A jury today considered whether to give Avetis Archanian the death penalty for killing a mother and daughter at the jewelry story they owned.

After roughly five hours of testimony from the victims' family members and Archanian's family Wednesday, the jury was to decide whether to sentence Archanian to death, life without the possibility of parole, life with the possibility of parole after 40 years or a set term of 40 to 100 years in prison.

On Tuesday Archanian, 46, was convicted for the Nov. 29 murders of Elisa Del Prado, 65, and her mother, Juana Maria Quiroga, 86, owners of World Merchants Importers in downtown Las Vegas.

Archanian, who worked as a part-time jewelry repairman at the store, was originally charged with attempted murder of Del Prado, who died in after being in a coma in March, but a grand jury changed the charge to murder.

Archanian was convicted of two counts of murder with use of a deadly weapon with the victim being 65 years of age or older and two counts of robbery with use of a deadly weapon with the victim being 65 years of age or older.

Prosecutors successfully argued Archanian, who worked part-time as a jewelry repairman at the victims' store, used a hammer and a ring-sizer to kill the two.

Quiroga's youngest daughter, Nitika Brown, said her mother was "the rock of our family."

Del Prado's daughter and Quiroga's granddaughter, Grethel Jerbic, said her mother was the "most incredible woman you could possibly imagine."

"She taught us to live, to understand," Jerbic said. "She taught us to listen and give advice. She was our confidante."

Jerbic, who shared photos of Del Prado and Quiroga with the jury, said her life and her family's lives were forever changed on Nov. 29.

"On Nov. 29 you can't imagine what happened," Jerbic said. "My skies turned so gray."

It was perhaps Javier Del Prado, who remained standing while he spoke to the jury, who expressed the sorrow and anger of his family the best.

He pointed down at Archanian and said, "They (his mother and grandmother) will always be missed, but never forgotten."

"What has been taken, what you (Archanian) took can never be replaced," Javier Del Prado said.

He said it was his family who gave Archanian "a job, put food on his table and it's an embarrassment knowing a crime was committed in such a way."

Although Archanian's sister-in-law, first cousin and longtime friend testified the Armenian immigrant, who came to the United States in 1977 to escape communism with only $1,200, was a peaceful, calm and charitable man, it was his wife and son who argued hardest for the jury to spare his life.

Archanian's wife of 20 years, Mary Archanian, asked the jury for "mercy" saying he was not a violent man. When asked how she would react if he was executed she cried into a tissue and said, "He's my rock, I don't know what I'm going to do, I don't know how I would go on living, if I would be able to live."

Archanian's 19-year-old son, Avak Archanian, said he was forced to leave college because of his father's arrest. He told the jury his father was a calm and patient man who was "afraid of the sight of blood."

If his father was sentenced to death Avak Archanian said he would "cut myself off from the rest of the world. I'd go crazy."

He asked the jury to please give his father some mercy even though he knows the family of Quiroga and Del Prado "had a big loss."

Perhaps the most unusual testimony of the day was a statement written by Avetis Archanian that was read aloud to the court by his attorney, Mace Yampolsky.

In the statement Archanian says he "cannot believe Elisa (Del Prado) and grandma (Quiroga) are not with us. I know they are watching from the kingdom heaven over all of us."

Archanian's attorney, William Grayser, in his closing argument to the jury, told them that they were "not here about vengeance" but instead should follow the teaching of Jesus Christ: "If someone strikes you, turn the other cheek."

Grayser asked the jury to offer "unconditional forgiveness" and return a sentence of life without the possibility for parole for a man who acted outside of his character.

"This is not the mastermind criminal who staked out the store as the state would have you believe," Grayser said. "I don't think he's the cold blooded killer the state says he is, but instead someone who lost it."

Deputy District Attorney Gregory Knapp said Archanian was not the man his family and friends said he was just as he was not the man Quiroga and Del Prado thought they knew. Archanian is the proverbial "wolf in sheep's clothing," the prosecutor said.

Knapp said that any man who has done what Archanian was convicted of is "the type of man that deserves to submit his life."

The jury is scheduled to begin deliberating on Archanian's sentence this morning.