Los Angeles Times - 09.08.2019

L ATIMES.COM FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 2019B

CITY & STATE

DRIVER DIES IN CRASH

Irfan KhanLos Angeles Times

A motorist was killed in the crash of a car Thursday in Arcadia. A witness told police that the vehicle

was speeding on Live Oak Avenue when it went airborne after hitting a median and crashed into a store.

Prosecutors asked Or-

ange County jurors Wednes-

day whether they had been

convinced that a man who

fled amid a criminal investi-

gation and later escaped

from Orange County Jail

was the type of person not to

be at the forefront of making

elaborate plans, such as the

kidnapping and extortion

plot in which he is accused of

participating.

Hossein Nayeri, 40, is be-

ing tried on charges of kid-

napping for ransom, aggra-

vated mayhem, torture and

burglary in the 2012 abduc-

tion of a Newport Beach

marijuana dispensary

owner and his female room-

mate and the man’s torture

and sexual mutilation.

According to authorities,

the kidnappers believed the

dispensary owner had bur-

ied $1 million in the Mojave

Desert at a spot where his

car had been traced via GPS.

Nayeri, who says he had

no involvement in the

crimes, returned to the wit-

ness stand Wednesday with

a more conciliatory tone af-

ter his testimony the day be-

fore ended in heated ex-

changes.

Attorneys from both

the prosecution and the de-

fense pressed further into

Nayeri’s marriage to Cort-

ney Shegerian, who had pre-

viously testified that she was

terrified of her husband,

whom she described as

“highly intelligent” but “ma-

nipulative.”

Nayeri’s attorney Salva-

tore Ciulla gave the defend-

ant an opportunity to elabo-

rate on why he felt the mar-

riage had been wrongfully

annulled on grounds that he

was already married to a

woman in Iran.

Nayeri testified that

his divorce in Iran was final-

ized April 20, 2009, more

than a year before he and

Shegerian wed on June 25,

2010. Nayeri said he had
      documentation confirming
      that.
      Nayeri said Shegerian
      knew about the divorce. On
      Tuesday, Senior Deputy
      Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy’s
      questioning about the mat-
      ter was cut short when Nay-
      eri grew visibly aggravated
      and accused Shegerian of ly-
      ing in court during their an-
      nulment proceedings.

Murphy delivered the

prosecution’s closing argu-

ment Wednesday, question-

ing whether the defense had

made its points outlined in

opening statementsJuly 17.

Did Nayeri demonstrate

that he had nothing to hide?

Did the defense show evi-

dence that gang members

were involved and responsi-

ble for the crimes?

And was Nayeri convinc-

ing in his claim that though

he was involved in conduct-

ing surveillance on the dis-

pensary owner, he had no

idea what was being planned

against him?

Murphy contended that

the answer to all those ques-

tions is no.

Nayeri was arrested in

November 2013 in Prague,

Czech Republic, after leav-

ing for Iran soon after de-

tectives began investigating

the kidnapping. He escaped

from Orange County Jail in

2016, evading authorities for

eight days before being cap-

tured in San Francisco.

Prosecutors portrayed

Nayeri not only as the most

cunning of the four defend-

ants charged in the case but

also as the only one who con-

nects all the suspects, span-

ning from Orange County to

Fresno and Palmdale.

“Somebody very smart

was involved in this,” Mur-

phy said.

“Is Ryan [Kevorkian] a

smart guy?” Murphy said,

referring to Nayeri’s high

school friend who prose-

cutors said impregnated a

prisoner while married with

two children and working as

a correctional officer. He

went on to have four children

with the woman, prose-

cutors said.

“I think that qualifies you

as being an idiot,” Murphy

said.

"[Kyle] Handley didn’t

swap the license plate on the

truck and forgot to put gas in

the van,” Murphy said of the

co-defendant who was found

guilty in January 2018 of his

role in the kidnapping and

was later sentenced to life in

prison.

“Did those two clowns

ever plan anything in their

lives?” Murphy said. “Not

anything like this.”

Kevorkian and the fourth

defendant, Naomi Rhodus

(previously Kevorkian),

have been charged with six

felony counts each and

pleaded not guilty in 2014.

Kevorkian is due in court

Monday and Rhodus on

Sept. 6.

The defense in Nayeri’s

trial will present its closing

argument Friday.

Sclafani writes for Times

Community News.

Trial in torture

and abduction

case nears end

Prosecutors portray

defendant as the only

suspect capable of

planning kidnapping

of dispensary owner.

By Julia Sclafani

Authorities and the fa-
ther of a Monrovia woman
believed to have been kid-
napped by her boyfriend 11
days ago are pleading for the
public’s help in finding her.
Amanda Custer, 31, has
been missing since July 29.
Her boyfriend, Robert
Camou, 27, was taken into
custodythe following morn-
ing in downtown Los Ange-
les. He remains jailed on do-
mestic violence charges that
are not related to the case.
Investigators say Camou
remains the prime and only
suspect in Custer’s disap-
pearance.
Authorities believe the
couple were involved in an
altercation on the morning
of July 29, Sheriff ’s Lt. Scott
Hoglund said at a news con-
ference Thursday.
Police responded about
8:15 a.m. to a domestic vi-
olence call at Camou’s home
in the 600 block of Vaquero
Road in Monrovia. Inside his
bedroom, they found evi-
dence of an assault, includ-
ing blood, Hoglund said.
Investigators suspect
that Camou took Custer
from the home against her
will.
“There was evidence and
witnesses that stated Mr.
Camou placed the victim
Amanda Custer’s lifeless
body in the back storage
cargo area of a 2017 gray
Prius,” Hoglund said.
About 18 hours later — at
2:45 a.m. on July 30 — LAPD
officers found Camou sleep-
ing in the Prius near 2nd and
Hill streets in downtown Los
Angeles. Custer was not in-
side. In the cargo area, inves-
tigators found blood and a
tool used for digging,
Hoglund said. They have
found no remains.
Hours before Camou’s
arrest, he was recorded on
video at downtown’s King
Eddy Saloon performing an
expletive-filled rap about
killing and burying a
woman, Hoglund con-
firmed.
On Thursday, authorities
released a timeline of Cam-
ou’s movements in the hours
immediately after the sus-
pected kidnapping, in hope
of soliciting tips.
After leaving his home in
Monrovia, Camou drove
east to Glendora, Hoglund
said. He purchased food at a
Del Taco on Foothill Boule-
vard shortly after 8:30 a.m.,
then bought cigarettes at
a Shell gas station on Foot-
hill.
Camou continued east,
to Claremont, and was in the
area of Base Line Road and
Padua Avenue shortly be-
fore 9 a.m. His next known
location was an AM/PM in
the 3800 block of Sierra Ave-
nue near Lytle Creek, ac-
cording to video footage re-
viewed by investigators.
Camou left the store
shortly before 9:30 a.m. and
headed south on the 15 Free-
way, Hoglund said. For the
next five hours — until about

2:40 p.m., when Camou vis-

ited a Chase Bank ATM in

Azusa — his whereabouts

are unknown. Authorities

and Custer’s family are ask-

ing the public to help fill in

that gap.

“This is basically a plea to

anybody out there, espe-

cially on Monday, the 29th of

July, that was hiking or fish-

ing or mountain biking, that

might have seen anything

out of the ordinary,” Custer’s

father, Rick Custer, said

Thursday. “It might not have

seemed that important at

that time, but it does now.”

Investigators have

broadened the scope of the

search for Amanda Custer to

encompass the area from

Lytle Creek to Azusa Can-

yon, including Mt. Baldy,

Hoglund said.

“We’ve had search teams

out handing out fliers,

searching various areas,” he

said, “but it is such a broad

area that we desperately

need the community’s as-

sistance in trying to pinpoint

a location of where this Prius

may have gone off-road, or

anybody that has any infor-

mation as to where Amanda

Custer is at.”

Camou is being held

without bail on a warrant re-

lated to domestic violence,

burglary, battery and as-

sault charges that were filed

against him in May. He

pleaded not guilty to those

charges last month, accord-

ing to court records.

Sheriff ’s investigators

are waiting for the outcome

of the case to be determined

before presenting evidence

related to the suspected kid-

napping to the district attor-

ney’s office for possible

charges, Hoglund said.

Though the domestic vi-

olence charges aren’t related

to the suspected kidnap-

ping, Custer is the victim in

that case as well, he said.

Camou had been ordered

by the court to stay away

from her and wear an elec-

tronic monitoring device.

Investigators said Thurs-

day that he removed the

monitoring device at some

point after the suspected

kidnapping but declined to

say where it was found.

Anyone with information

was asked to contact the

sheriff ’s homicide bureau.

“Somebody out there

had to have seen something,

and now would be a good

time to call it in,” Rick Custer

said. “We just want to bring

Amanda home.”

Help sought in kidnap case

“SOMEBODY OUT THEREhad to have seen something,” Rick Custer said of his

daughter’s disappearance. Amanda Custer, 31, has been missing since July 29.

Al SeibLos Angeles TImes

Los Angeles County

investigators urge

potential witnesses

to come forward.

By Alex Wigglesworth

A proposed regional elec-

tric streetcar that would ini-

tially connect a transporta-

tion center in south Glen-

dale to the city’s downtown

area is chugging along to its

next phase of study, as de-

tails of its potential route,

ridership, cost and traffic

impacts take shape.

Last week, Glendale city

staff unveiled a more de-

tailed look at two potential

streetcar routes that were

first proposed in March.

Both options would span

2.88 miles, have 16 stations

and carry a price tag of

$250 million to $300 million

to construct, with an addi-

tional $4 million to $5 million

in annual operating costs,

according to an update on

the streetcar’s feasibility

study presented at a City

Council meeting last week.

“It’s always best to have a

project in the planning

stages, or past the planning

stages, on the shelf, ready to

go, because you never know

when funding is going to ap-

pear,” Mayor Ara Najarian

said before the City Council

voted to complete the study.

Najarian also sits on the

Metro board.

With the loop option, the

streetcar would run north

on Central Avenue from the

Larry Zarian Transporta-

tion Center in south Glen-

dale before turning on

Stocker Street and heading

south on Brand Boulevard,

said Bradley Calvert, the

city’s assistant director of

community development,

who gave the presentation.

South of Maple Street, the

north and southbound

tracks would both operate

on Central before connect-

ing back at the transporta-

tion center.

The bidirectional option

would run north and south

from the transportation

center on Central before cut-

ting across Maple to Brand.

It would then run north and

south on Brand, Calvert

said.

“It’s capturing the largest

potential audience,” includ-

ing pedestrians and existing

transit users, Calvert said of

the bidirectional option.

“But it does obviously cause

some disruption, especially

during construction peri-

ods, because it’s all focused

on one street instead of split

between two.”

City staff predicted the

bidirectional route on Brand

would attract 1,500 to 4,

riders a day — slightly more

than the 1,400 to 3,800 daily

riders predicted for the loop

option.

Both routes would result

in a loss of parking along

their respective corridors.

With each route planned

to run curbside, city staff

said angled parking along

some areas on Brand and

Central would need to be

converted to parallel park-

ing to preserve the number

of existing traffic lanes.

Parallel parking takes up

more horizontal space than

angling cars outward toward

the street, leading to a

roughly 30% loss of parking

in the conversion, Calvert

said.

Planned stations would

also displace some parking

spaces.

According to the study

update, the loop option

would lead to a loss of 70 to 80

parking spaces, with an ad-

ditional 30% loss of angled

spaces. The bidirectional

option would lead to the loss

of 60 to 70 parking spaces,

with an additional 30% loss

of angled spaces.

Council members Frank

Quintero and Paula Devine

expressed relief that the

streetcars would not run in

the center of the street, po-

tentially displacing trees

and other landscaping in the

medians.

Further study needs to be

completed before city staff

can seek certain state and

federal grants to potentially

help finance the project, said

Phillip Lanzafame, Glen-

dale’s director of community

development.

“It’s a step-by-step,” Lan-

zafame said.

Down the line, the street-

car could be expanded to

Burbank and beyond,

Calvert said.

Residents can submit

comments and complete a

survey about the project at

glendalestreetcar.com.

By fall or winter of this

year, the study should be

complete.

At that point, the find-

ings will be presented to the

City Council for further con-

sideration.

The streetcar could be

complemented by a Metro-

directed, $287-million bus-

rapid transit system, or

BRT, planned to connect

Pasadena and North Holly-

wood via Burbank and

Glendale.

With Metro officials

wrapping up a public-com-

ment period for the 18-mile

bus line this week, it will then

undergo further environ-

mental analysis. It’s ex-

pected to open to the public

in 2024.

Seidman writes for Times

Community News.

Proposed Glendale streetcar rolls into focus

AN ARTIST’Srendering shows a Glendale streetcar

configuration at Central Avenue and Laurel Street.

Feasibility study looks

at the line’s potential

route, ridership, cost

and traffic impacts.

By Lila Seidman