District Attorney Gregory D. Totten announced today that Los Angeles County residents Patrick Abrahamian (DOB 1/6/70), Michelle Abrahamian (DOB 5/27/71), and Taline Indra (DOB 2/29/80) were each sentenced to prison for their theft of a Bell Canyon home. Patrick Abrahamian was sentenced to 11 years 4 months in prison. Michelle Abrahamian and Taline Indra were each sentenced to 7 years 8 months in prison. In February, the defendants were convicted following a one-month jury trial. The case is the result of an investigation conducted by the District Attorney’s Real Estate Fraud Unit.

In 2012, Patrick Abrahamian approached the 65-year-old victim with an offer to help him negotiate a modification of his mortgage. In return, the victim agreed to move out and lease his home to the Abrahamians while Patrick Abrahamian supposedly negotiated a new mortgage for the victim. At the end of the lease term, the Abrahamians refused to vacate the home. After consulting with an attorney, the victim learned that a notarized grant deed had been recorded conveying his home, as a gift, to Abrahamian’s wife, Michelle Abrahamian. At the time of the offenses, Michelle Abrahamian was a licensed real estate agent.

The deed gifting away the victim’s home was fraudulently notarized by defendant Taline Indra, who is Michelle Abrahamian’s sister. Patrick Abrahamian subsequently impersonated the victim in a lawsuit filed by Abrahamian against the victim’s mortgage lender. This impersonation caused additional false documents to be filed in both the Ventura Superior Court and the County Recorder’s Office. Michelle Abrahamian was found in possession of notary acknowledgments that falsely claimed the victim had appeared before defendant Indra to have his signature notarized.

Judge Michael Lief noted that the sophistication and brazenness of the defendants’ fraudulent scheme “shocked the conscience of the court.” In addition to the prison sentence, each defendant was also fined $500,000 and ordered to pay $189,382 in victim restitution.

The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office is the public prosecutor for the county’s 850,000 residents. The office employs approximately 280 employees including attorneys, investigators, victim advocates, and other professional support staff who strive to seek justice, ensure public safety, and protect the rights of crime victims.

Bob Crum

Faithful readers know that I planned to attend the L.A. air show the past weekend at Fox Airfield in Lancaster. I went but the weather was awful... extremely windy and very cold.

The show began with skydivers bringing forth the U.S. Flag followed by the National Anthem. Next, aerobatics. With pedal-to-the-metal they provided amazing demonstrations in aircraft that seemed to defy gravity. Also, following a speedy aerobatic plane is not only daunting, it often results in neck whiplash. Exactly why I prefer mermaid boudoir photography!

The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor was a show stopper. The U.S. Air Force single-seat, twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter aircraft is a mean, awesome weapon. The combination of vectored thrust, range, and stealth capability makes it the world’s most feared combat aircraft. More later.

Now some provocative photography data: On SD card #1, 1,572 RAW photos. SD card #2, 1,147 RAW photos. Total photos made: 2,572 comprising 48.5GBs of digital data! Whew! That's just for one day! I didn't go on Sunday because of weather & my tush hadn't yet thawed. Of course most photos will be deleted. Then why shoot so many? The answer another day.

If you're thinking that 2,572 photos is excessive, whoa, no doubt you're overlooking the fact that aircraft-especially jets–move faster than a garden slug. Bidda-bing: See it! Bidda-bam: Gone! Only mere seconds for focus lock and compose... two essential ingredients for a successful photo. Also, leading a fast moving airplane to nail the composition is extremely vexing. Don't ask how many aircraft rear-end photos I captured!

I resisted using burst mode for fear that the capture count would triple. Mercy, imagine that! Instead, I fire off a batch of photos in single-shot mode. From the batch, I'll usually end up with 2 or 3 successful captures. More on a warmer day!

In the past, I rented a very heavy Canon 100-300mm “L” lens. Getting older, this time I rented a Tamron 18-400mm lens. Much lighter & longer reach. Speaking of 'reach', many times more is better. On one fly over, the pilot of the F-22 Raptor opened the armament bay doors. I was zoomed out to 120mm as the plane approached. Right as it was overhead I quickly zoomed in to 400mm and BINGO!... captured the interior of the open armament bay. Sweet! It'll be in the photo/video at a later date.

There's a huge difference between photoing propeller and jet aircraft. Because jets fly so fast, I increase the shutter speed to 1/800th of a second to frame-freeze while panning quickly. But shoot a prop plane at that fast shutter speed, and the propellers are frozen making the plane look like it's suspended in the sky on a string! A shutter speed of about 1/120th of a second shows propellers spinning.

The final performance of the show included fly-overs with a Lockheed P-38J Lightning paired with the F-22 Raptor. Awesome! I had just photoed the F-22 Raptor solo thus camera shutter speed was 1/800th of a second. I was so intrigued watching the pair I goofed. I forgot to reset the shutter speed to 1/120th for the P-38J. Yep, unusable photos because the props of the P-38J photos are frozen. So depressing but also so human. Maybe I should consider an assistant like pro golfers have caddies. Anyone interested?

Photo of the week is the F-22 Raptor approaching. See it one second... whoosh... next second gone! That's very fast! Because it was far off, I zoomed to 400mm to get the photo. Happy photoing.

Send your comments, suggestions or questions to: bob@fillmoregazette.com

District Attorney Gregory D. Totten announced today that Franky Magana (DOB 11/12/85), of Santa Paula, was sentenced by Judge Ryan Wright to 47 years to life for gang-related murder. Magana’s co-defendant, Omar Ruiz (DOB 07/27/87), also of Santa Paula, was sentenced to 158 years to life in prison for the same gang-related murder and for assault on a police officer with an assault weapon.

On May 27, 2013, victim Ulises Virto was standing on a street corner in the city of Santa Paula when Magana, Ruiz, and a third unidentified assailant drove up next to Mr. Virto, parked, exited their vehicle and opened fire with three handguns in a gang-motivated attack. Mr. Virto was shot seven times and died at the scene. A Santa Paula Police Department officer intercepted the gunmen as they fled the scene. During the subsequent high-speed chase all three guns and other evidence were tossed from the vehicle. Soon thereafter, the car stopped, and Magana exited, fleeing on foot. The lone police officer pursued Magana on foot and quickly arrested him. Ruiz and the unidentified gunman continued to flee in the vehicle, eventually abandoning it two blocks away and escaping on foot. All three guns and other evidence thrown from the vehicle were forensically matched to Ruiz and Magana as well as to evidence collected at the scene.

On November 7, 2013, Ruiz was tracked by Ventura County Sheriff’s deputies to an address in the city of Camarillo. From within the home, Ruiz watched on a closed-circuit surveillance system as a team of deputies approached the residence. Ruiz fired on the deputies with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle until the gun jammed. After a brief stand-off, Ruiz was taken into custody. No deputies were injured during the assault.

Magana and Ruiz were convicted by a jury of murder and other charges on January 3, 2018.