Man gets 135-year sentence for killing 80-year-old during burglary in Encino
VAN NUYS — An ex-con was sentenced Tuesday to 135 years to life in state prison for murdering an 80-year-old man whom a prosecutor said interrupted a burglary at his Encino home.
Timothy Kirkpatrick, now 45, was convicted March 18 of first-degree murder for the March 2, 2022, shooting of Stuart Herman.
Jurors also found Kirkpatrick guilty of one count each of first-degree residential burglary with a person present, assault with a firearm and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
In her sentencing memorandum, Deputy District Attorney Ranna Jahanshahi wrote that it became clear that Herman and his 67-year-old former brother-in-law — who was visiting him — “walked into the residential burglary in progress” and were told, “Get on the ground. We are the police. Do not look up!”
The prosecutor wrote that the defendant’s actions “showed a sophisticated and callous individual who orchestrated a planned, deadly shooting which was senseless, unnecessary and the definition of over-kill.”
Kirkpatrick — who had two prior strikes for first-degree residential burglary and second-degree robbery — was arrested on April 26, 2022, in Simi Valley after barricading himself and refusing to exit for at least a half-hour, according to the prosecutor.
The deputy district attorney wrote that Hakop Keloyan — who was charged along with Kirkpatrick but was not facing a murder count — was arrested at his home in Sherman Oaks after running out of the residence and trying to scale the wall at the back of his property.
Keloyan pleaded no contest last month to charges including first-degree burglary and assault with a firearm, court records show. He is set to be sentenced Wednesday.
The prosecutor noted in her sentencing memo in Kirkpatrick’s case that phone records, data and cell tower evidence placed the two at the victim’s home during the time of the murder.
Keloyan repeatedly told the victim’s former brother-in-law not to look at him and then struck him in the face and mouth with a gun, causing a chipped tooth and bloody nose, before the surviving victim “relentlessly performed grueling, repeated and continuous CPR in his unapologetic attempts to save his best friend,” Jahanshahi wrote.