Glendale NewsPress
LATimes.com
Jan 29 2005
Glendale man will serve 16 months
Ara Gabrielyan sentenced in stalking case after following
ex-girlfriend with tracking device he attached to her car.
By Jackson Bell, News-Press and Leader
GLENDALE – A Glendale man was sentenced Friday to 16 months in prison
for following his ex-girlfriend using a Global Positioning
System-enabled cell phone attached to her car, one of the first
stalking cases of its kind in L.A. County, officials said.
Ara Gabrielyan, 33, pleaded no contest to one count of stalking and
two counts of making criminal threats, officials said. Gabrielyan
faces deportation to Armenia, his home country, upon completing his
prison term, prosecutors said.
Gabrielyan was arrested Aug. 29 after his former girlfriend, Gayanne
Indezhan, reported to Glendale Police that she allegedly spotted him
trying to change the cell phone’s battery under her car, authorities
said. He was accused of following Indezhan, a 35-year-old Glendale
woman, for six months leading up to the arrest.
Andrew Flier, Gabrielyan’s defense attorney, believes that he will
only serve up to four months of his sentence since he has nearly
eight months in credit for time already served in jail. Flier also
said Gabrielyan’s family wants him to return to his home country.
“We are happy about this because he is a nice man, and the more we
would have fought the case, I think the worse it would have been for
him,” he said.
Gabrielyan was reportedly using the phone as a tracking device, and
would unexpectedly turn up while she was at a bookstore or traveling
to Los Angeles International Airport, police said.
During a preliminary hearing earlier this month, Indezhan testified
that Gabrielyan could not accept that their relationship of two years
was over and would call her continually throughout the day.
Gabrielyan never physically attacked her, but she feared for the
safety of herself and her children the month leading up to his
arrest, Indezhan testified. She said he threatened to kidnap and
impregnate her as well as kill both of them so they could be together
“in eternity.”
“He told me that he was going to crash my car, then did it,” she
said. “He told me he was going to break into my house, and did it.
Then he said he was going to kill me. Did I have that guarantee? No,
but I was afraid he would do what he was going to say.”