DA's Office to Seek Death Penalty for Man Charged in Killings Outside Northridge Boarding Home

By City News Service

The prosecution announced Tuesday it will seek a death sentence against a man charged with the shooting deaths of two women and two men outside a Northridge boarding home a year ago.

Ka Pasasouk, 32, is charged with the Dec. 2, 2012, slayings of Amanda Ghossein, 24, of Monterey Park; Jennifer Kim, 26, of Montebello; Robert Calabia, 34, of Los Angeles; and Teofilo Navales, 49, of Castaic.

The four murder charges include the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders.

Pasasouk, who was arrested in Las Vegas one day after the killings, also faces five counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and one count each of attempted murder and possession of a firearm by a felon.

He is due back in San Fernando Superior Court on Feb. 19 for a pretrial hearing.

Pasasouk was ordered held without bail last Dec. 19 for allegedly violating his probation in a drug case and the terms of his release from an earlier prison term.

Questions were raised after Pasasouk's arrest about why he was not in custody at the time of the killings. Despite requests by probation officers last September that he be jailed, Pasasouk was permitted to enter a drug- diversion program in his methamphetamine possession case.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office conducted an internal review into the handling of the case and conceded that a mistake was made.

Pasasouk -- who has multiple convictions dating back to 2004 -- had been released from prison in January 2012.