A Westlake Village, California man was sentenced to 21 years in a California state prison prison for fatally shooting an instructor from Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design during a Persian New Year's party. In November 2011, Steven Honma, was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the death of Norman Schureman.
The two were at the New Year’s Eve party in Westlake Village in March 20, 2010. The defendant was asked to leave. According to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, he later returned with several weapons, ammunition and a knife. When he was asked to leave again, a fight ensued and he shot Schureman.
According to his attorney, he had been traumatized from years of insults targeting his Japanese heritage. While the sequence of events are still unclear, there was someone at the party who made a racial and sexual slur about his wife.
But with a case built by L.A. County Sheriff's Department homicide detectives, prosecutors argued that it was Homma who was being hostile and belligerent to those attending the party.
During closing arguments, prosecutors claimed that he talked about killing throughout the party and told those attending that he was with the CIA. The event turned ugly when he got into a fight with a relative of the victim and put him in a headlock.
After being told to stop, he left the the house and went home. Once there, he changed clothes and armed himself with several weapons, including a .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun, ammunition and a hunting-type knife. He returned to the party and began playing with the knife and babbling incoherently, alarming other guests.
Voluntary manslaughter criminal charges are often related to the result of a heated quarrel or dispute. It is usually rash behavior without any thought or reflection of what the outcome could be. However, a manslaughter charged is still considered a homicide.
If you or a member of your family has been arrested for any type of manslaughter charge, you need to contact a Los Angeles manslaughter defense attorney right away.
At the law office of Cron, Israels & Stark, we have been successfully defending clients against all types of violent crime charges that include murder,
robbery,
domestic violence, among others.
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