Associated Press
Dec 8 2004
Brief news stories from Las Vegas:
Death Penalty Case
LAS VEGAS (AP) – Jurors began the death penalty phase Wednesday in
the trial of a 46-year-old part-time jewelry repairman found guilty
of bludgeoning and robbing his two employers in September 2003.
The same jury spent less than an hour deliberating Tuesday before
convicting Avetis Archanian of first-degree murder and robbery in the
slayings of 86-year-old Juana Quiroga and her 68-year-old daughter,
Elisa Del Prado.
Archanian’s trial, which lasted less than a week, included
surveillance video appearing to show him in the World
Merchants-Importers store in downtown Las Vegas store the morning of
the slayings.
Clark County District Attorney David Roger said Archanian used a
hammer and ring sizer to bludgeon Juana Quiroga, who died at the
scene. Del Prado died from her injuries in March.
Defense lawyer Mace Yampolsky asked the jury to spare Archanian’s
life. He said Archanian, an Armenian who moved to the United States
from the former Soviet Union in 1977, had no prior criminal record.