Crime & Safety
Prime Suspect Charged in Northridge Boarding House Murders
Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek the death penalty against Ka Pasasouk.
A 31-year-old felon was charged Thursday with capital murder in the shooting deaths of two women and two men outside a Northridge boarding home last month.
Ka Pasasouk, 31, is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 25 in San Fernando Superior Court on four counts of murder for the Dec. 2 slayings of Amanda Ghossen, 24, of Monterey Park; Jennifer Kim, 26, of Montebello; Robert Calabia, 34, of Los Angeles; and Teofilo Navales, 49, of Castaic.
The criminal complaint includes the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders. Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek the death penalty against Pasasouk, who also faces five counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm and one count each of attempted murder and possession of a firearm by a felon.
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, one day after the killings, and later returned to Los Angeles. On Dec. 19, he was ordered held without bail for allegedly violating his probation in a drug case and the terms of his release from an earlier prison term, but was not immediately charged in connection with the killings.
Questions have been raised since 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.
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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.
"The review shows that the office inadvertently erred in indicating the defendant was eligible for a Proposition 36 drug program," Sandi Gibbons of the District Attorney's Office said in a statement released last month.
Pasasouk -- who has multiple convictions dating back to 2004 -- had been released from prison last January.
Three other people were arrested along with Pasasouk at the Silverton hotel and casino near the Las Vegas Strip. Howard Alcantara, 30, of Glendale, Donna Rabulan, 30, of Los Angeles, and Christina Neal, 31, of Los Angeles, were booked on suspicion of aiding a felon, but to date have not been charged in connection with the slayings. An investigation is ongoing, according to the District Attorney's Office.
