GUILTY CA - Jay, 56, & Karishma Dhanak, 20, murdered, Anaheim Hills, 21 May 2007

[Indy Gal]

http://cbs2.com/local/local_story_164132721.html more at link!!

AP) FULLERTON, Calif. Prosecutors in Fullerton charged a man Wednesday with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder for allegedly killing the father and sister of his on-again, off-again girlfriend in a brutal attack that also left the mother severely burned.

Iftekhar Murtaza is set to appear in Orange County Superior Court for arraignment on the charges later today. He was extradited to California Monday after being arrested on a fugitive warrant May 26 at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

 

[Bobbisangel]

LE must have other proof that this guy is the guilty party other then him having a one way ticket. I would imagine that the mother has been able to identify the person who almost killed her by now. The whole case is just so horrible and it just never should have happened. Did this guy really think that if he got rid of the whole family that the lone survivor...the girl...would end up with him?

 

[JBean]

2nd man held in Dhanak killings

Police arrest a man in Chandler, Ariz., in connection with the violent crimes.

A second man has been arrested in connection with the killings of a father and daughter and the savage beating of the mother in Anaheim Hills last month, authorities said Tuesday.

Vitaliy Krasnoperov, 21, of Hollywood was picked up Thursday in Chandler, Ariz., as a “person of interest” in the probe of violent crimes against the Dhanak family, Anaheim police Sgt. Rick Martinez said
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1737492.php

 

[JBean]

Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Murder suspect breaks the silence

Iftekhar Murtaza, 23, of Van Nuys is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend's father, sister and of the near-fatal bludgeoning of her mother.

SANTA ANA - One of three men accused of killing an Anaheim Hills father and daughter and of the near-fatal beating of the mother talked for the first time publicly Wednesday since his June arrest.
Iftekhar Murtaza, 23, of Van Nuys said he did not commit the crimes he is accused of during an interview at the Men's Central Jail in Santa Ana.
"Everyone that knows me knows I couldn't be capable of such a heinous crime," Murtaza said as he sat behind security glass and talked via a telephone.
Murtaza and the other defendants - Vitaliy Krasnoperov, 22, of West Hollywood and Charles Murphy Jr., 23, of Mission Hills – are each charged with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in the May deaths of Jayprakash Dhanak, 56, and his daughter Karishma, 20, and the beating of wife and mother Leela Dhanak, 53.

Murtaza was the ex-boyfriend of the Dhanaks' youngest daughter, Shayona. Court records indicate her Hindu family disapproved of her relationship with Murtaza, who is Muslim. Murtaza was angry with the Dhanaks for interfering in the relationship, court papers say.

Shayona Dhanak was not home at the time of the attack and was uninjured. Leela Dhanak has been released from the hospital and is recovering.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/murtaza-one-dhanak-1941199-wednesday-micalizzi

 

[GlitchWizard]

The first one to talk (even if he's lying) gets the best sentence.

 

[MeoW333]

I think he's guilty, he gets a ticket out of the country afterwards, thank God LE caught him in time. Murtaza is trying to play the victim card right now it seems. He sounds like a sociopath who really believes in his own head that he had the right to kill them as they weren't of his religion, and now he's lying to try and get off.

 

[JBean]

http://www.ocregister.com/news/dhanak-230597-murtaza-sayz.html

Details emerge in father-daughter murders

Leela Dhanak sat only a few feet away from the man she identified as her attacker as she recounted her memories of the May 21, 2007 attack in her Anaheim Hills home.
"(Iftekhar) Murtaza put a knife underneath my chin," she said as she moved her hand from left to right across her scarred throat during a preliminary hearing that wrapped up last week in Superior Court in Fullerton.

snip

Nearly three years after a father and daughter were set ablaze and the mother, Dhanak, had her throat slit, details surrounding one of Orange County's most notorious cases are surfacing.

 

[JBean]

Exhibits presented at the preliminary hearing included computer instant-messages allegedly between Murtaza and Krasnoperov, who an Anaheim officer testified went by the name "Crowseeker":
IFTEKHAR SaYz: shayonas parents made us breakup
crowseeker: (expletive deleted)
IFTEKHAR SaYz: dude I wantto kill them
crowseeker: how?
During the lengthy conversation on March 29, 2007, according to the instant-message transcript, they talk about ways to kill Shayona's family including burning the house down "with them in it" or by hiring a hit man.
On April 26, 2007, another instant-message conversation allegedly occurred between Murtaza and Krasnoperov:
crowseeker: might needs pictures
IFTEKHAR SaYz: aka = you
crowseeker: of all of them
IFTEKHAR SaYz: you serious? (expletive)
IFTEKHAR SaYz: might have mom
IFTEKHAR SaYz: and sister
IFTEKHAR SaYz: of course
IFTEKHAR SaYz: how to get pics??
IFTEKHAR SaYz: of em
IFTEKHAR SaYz: illaskher to show me pics of her indiatrip i guess
IFTEKHAR SaYz: let me know when we need pics...cuzi havetobe slick aboutit
IFTEKHAR SaYz: asap
Jack M. Earley, Murtaza's attorney, said the instant messages paint an incomplete picture, and that he'll offer "the whole story" at trial.
Said Krasnoperov's lawyer, Brent Romney: "He (Krasnoperov) never thought Murtaza was serious, and if he never thought he was serious, he wasn't aiding and abetting when he had the IM conversations," Romney said. "They were bantering as friends. ...He is innocent of murder."
On the day of the killings, between 1:37 and 1:46 p.m., the prosecutor said these text messages occurred:
Murtaza: Yo call me this is imp
Murphy: I will call u
Murphy: Whats good
Murtaza: Sum1 offerin 30k for a job...I dnt know how down u r
Murphy: What do I do
Murtaza: Gotta talk in person..it's a big deal..im doin it myself
Murphy: Ok come get me
Murphy: Come 2 my house...I'm at home

 

[Kat]

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2011/06/vitaliy_krasnoperov_iftekhar_m.php

By Matt Coker, Tue., Jun. 7 2011 at 11:52 AM

[UPDATED with New Trial:] Vitaliy Krasnoperov Accused of Murder in Plot with 2 Burned Bodies

The first trial of Krasnoperov ended in mistrial last month, but he isn't off the hook yet. An Orange County judge has consolidated the murder trials of Krasnoperov and another man authorities have tied to the plot, Charles Anthony Murphy Jr., 25, of Mission Hills. Their trial is now scheduled to begin later this year.

More at link. (article is 3 pages)

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/krasnoperov-648545-dhanak-jury.html

Prosecutors plan to retry a man found guilty of helping a friend burn to death his ex-girlfriend's father and sister but whose conviction was overturned on appeal, Orange County District Attorney's Office officials say.

It would mark the third time that Vitaliy Krasnoperov, 29, faces trial in connection with the death of Jayprakash Dhanak and his 20-year-old daughter, Karishma Dhanak, as well as the attempted murder of Leela Dhanak, Jayprakash's wife...

Murtaza and Murphy both were convicted. A jury recommended the death penalty for Murtaza, who is awaiting sentencing.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/murtaza-650400-goethals-dhanak.html

The attorney for a man convicted in one of the most brutal murders in the county's history is pushing for a retrial, arguing that new evidence and witnesses could exonerate his client.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals agreed Friday to delay for several weeks the sentencing for Iftekhar Murtaza, who faces the death penalty for the 2007 killings of his ex-girlfriend's father and sister and the attempted murder of her mother... Murtaza's sentencing has been delayed several times over the past year at the request of his attorneys...

But Goethals made clear that he would be hard-pressed to support any additional delays. "It's time for this train to leave the station," Goethals said. "It's time for the people to get resolution, for Mr. Murtaza to get resolution."

 

[OkieGranny]

From March:

http://ktla.com/2015/03/03/man-sent...x-girlfriends-father-sister-in-anaheim-hills/

A 30-year-old Van Nuys man was sentenced to death Tuesday for the May 21, 2007 murders of his ex-girlfriend’s father and sister and the attempted murder of her mother...

Co-defendant, 30-year-old Charles Anthony Murphy Jr. of Mission Hills, was found guilty in 2012 in connection with the case. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A second co-defendant, 29-year-old Vitaliy Krasnoperov of Hollywood, was currently awaiting a new trial date in the third re-trial of his case.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://abc7.com/news/man-convicted-...n-retrial-of-2007-anaheim-hills-case/1287848/

A man has been found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder in the deaths of the father and sister of a friend's ex-girlfriend in Anaheim Hills in 2007.

Jurors said they were deadlocked Tuesday as they weighed two felony counts of special circumstances murder and one felony count of attempted murder against Vitaliy Krasnoperov.

 

[OkieGranny]

From November:

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/krasnoperov-736769-dhanak-murder.html

A man convicted of helping his best friend conspire to murder an Anaheim Hills family was sentenced Monday to 25 years to life in prison.

The sentencing brings to an end the years-long legal saga following the high-profile killings in 2007 of Jayprakash and Karishma Dhanak, which Orange County District Attorneys Office officials have described as among the most brutal murders in the county’s history.

Vitaliy Krasnoperov agreed to give up his right to appeal the conspiracy conviction in return for the prosecutor dropping two murder charges and an attempted murder charge.