Man sentenced to die for slayings

Friday, Dec. 10, 2004 | 10:53 a.m.

After jurors sentenced 46-year-old Avetis Archanian to death and started to file out of the courtroom, the daughter of one of the women he killed stood up and said quietly, "Thank you. Thank you."

The jury, which had convicted Archanian in less than an hour for the fatal beatings of 65-year-old Elisa Del Prado and 86-year-old Juana Maria Quiroga, needed less than two hours to decide his fate.

As had been the case throughout the five-day trial, Archanian showed no emotion when the sentence was announced. He only briefly turned to his family in the courtroom. His face appeared blank and pale.

After thanking the jury, Quiroga's youngest daughter, Nitika Brown, wearing a memorial button saying "I love you in my heart," turned to Archanian's son, Avak, who was sitting with Archanian's wife and other relatives. With tears in her eyes, Quiroga told the 19-year-old, "I feel for you."

On the steps of the courthouse minutes later Brown said she didn't believe in the death penalty, but the teen's father was given "the right sentence."

"In this case any other verdict would have sent him (Archanian's son) the wrong message, that you could do something like this and get away with it. For the sake of the son I'm happy with the verdict."

Elisa Del Prado's son and Quiroga's grandson, Johnny Del Prado, said the death sentence was appropriate because Avetis Archanian "didn't have any remorse."

"I just feel he got what he deserved and in my heart I always felt he deserved the death penalty because he treated them so horribly," Del Prado said.

Archanian, who worked part-time as a jewelry repairman at the victims' store in downtown Las Vegas, used a hammer and a ring-sizer to kill the women in November 2003, authorities said. A videotape recovered from the store recorded Archanian's apparent attack of the two women, and DNA evidence, from blood that had been on Archanian's shirt, pants, shoes, gloves and exterior of his car linked him to the victims.

Johnny Del Prado, who has run his family's store since the slayings, said "we will never forget about my mother or grandmother and always remember them with a smile on my face."

Archanian's family left the courthouse without commenting, as did Archanian's lawyer, William Grayser. When the individual jurors were polled on the verdict, and every one said death was the chosen penalty, Grayser threw his pen down on the defense table and put his hand to his face.

The jurors had the options of death, life without the possibility of parole, life with the possibility of parole after 40 years and a fixed term of 40 to 100 years in prison in sentencing Archanian.

It's unclear if Archanian could have avoided the death penalty prior to sentencing.

Although District Attorney David Roger said no offer was ever made to Archanian, he did say after Archanian's attorneys asked him if there were "any deals on the table" prior to the beginning of the trial.

Roger, who took the unusual step of prosecuting the case himself, said he told the defense lawyer that as a "starting point, if their client pleaded guilty to all the counts life without the possibility of parole might be discussed, but I wasn't sure I would accept it or the family would."

The district attorney said the issue quickly became moot because after meeting with Archanian's wife and attorneys because Archanian said he would not plead guilty to the charges.

Roger commended the jurors "for doing their civic duty as it's certainly not an easy thing to sentence someone to death."