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Studio City Man Gets 9 Years in Shooting of Actor Parker
Los Angeles Times
VAN NUYS — Disregarding a plea for leniency, a judge Friday sentenced a Studio City man to nine years in state prison for shooting actor Jameson Parker, former star of the "Simon & Simon" television series, during a quarrel on the gunman's front porch.
A Van Nuys Superior Court jury convicted Robert St. George, 53, of attempted murder for shooting Parker twice after the actor went to St. George's house Oct. 1, 1992, to discuss lewd comments allegedly made to Parker's wife.
Parker was shot once under the left arm and once in the back of his right arm. He was hospitalized for one night.
"I keep seeing his face, the look of pure evil, as he pointed the cocked gun at my chest and said of my wife, 'She's a whore,' " Parker wrote in a letter submitted to the court.
Judge Sandy Kriegler sentenced St. George--who could have received as much as 14 years--after hearing an emotional plea from St. George that "this was an unfortunate incident."
"I feel I'm as much of a victim as Mr. Parker--maybe more," he said.
After asking Kriegler to make special findings that could have kept St. George out of state prison, defense attorney Paul Takakjian urged the judge to hand down a sentence of probation and mandatory psychological counseling.
Kriegler called St. George an enigma, contrasting a large outpouring of community support for him with St. George's "hostile and mean-spirited nature."
During the trial, Deputy Dist. Atty. Kathleen M. Cady portrayed Parker as a man interested only in protecting his wife's honor after a neighbor made lewd comments to her as she walked the couple's dogs.
Parker testified that after angrily banging on the front door of St. George's Shadyglade Avenue residence, he saw St. George inside his darkened house with a gun. St. George opened the door and, after a short conversation, Parker was preparing to leave when St. George opened fire, according to the testimony.
After playing dead near the porch, Parker ran to his nearby home, he said. Cady said St. George then used a hammer to batter his own front door and smash a sliding-glass window in the back of the house, "fabricating an attempted burglary."
St. George also testified during the trial, contradicting nearly every aspect of Parker's testimony. He insisted that Parker was armed when he came to the house. St. George said he used a martial arts move to take the gun away from him, then fired by reflex.
While acknowledging that Parker may have initially been the aggressor, Kriegler said his actions in no way justified the shooting.
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