Suspect charged with West Hollywood triple-slaying

From City News Service:

BEVERLY HILLS -- A man suspected of killing three men in a West Hollywood apartment for several thousand dollars of marijuana was charged Wednesday with three counts of capital murder.
Harold Yong Park, who could be eligible for the death penalty if convicted, made his first
court appearance this afternoon in Beverly Hills Superior Court, but did not enter a plea.
The 31-year-old defendant is scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 14 on charges stemming from the shooting deaths of Pirooz Moussazadeh, 27, his 38- year-old brother Shahriar and Bernard Khalili, 27. Their bodies were found Thursday night in an apartment in the 600 block of North Kings Road, near Melrose Avenue.
The charges include special circumstance allegations of murder during a robbery and a
burglary, murder for financial gain and multiple murders.
Prosecutors will make a decision about seeking the death penalty later.
Park also is charged with three counts of robbery and one count each of burglary and transporting marijuana for sale.
Lt. Pat Nelson told a news conference in front of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau in
Monterey Park that Park's "original arrival at that location was for the purpose of purchasing several thousand dollars of marijuana. Unfortunately the deal didn't go as he had hoped, I'm sure, and three people lost their lives as a result of it."
Sheriff Lee Baca said the case proved the dangers of medical marijuana, claiming that the
medical marijuana business has become a magnet for crimes such as this.
"Is it no surprise that people are going to get killed behind this kind of easy profit. Drugs,
violence go together. High profits, violence go together," said Baca, named today as a
co-chair of the campaign opposing Proposition 19, the November ballot measure that would
legalize the recreational use of marijuana.
Sheriff's deputies used a license plate scanner to track down Park, who was arrested about 11 a.m. Monday in Lomita during a traffic stop. Deputies said they found several pounds of
marijuana in the vehicle.
Sheriff's Capt. Ronene Anda said the device "can scan thousands of license plates in just
moments. It's times like this which absolutely proves its worthiness."