Gov. Gavin Newsom has commuted the sentence of a Northern California man who committed a shocking murder-for-hire when he was 18 years old, the governor’s office announced Friday. Arthur Battle, now 37, will soon be eligible for parole after spending his entire adult life behind bars.
The unusual case made headlines in 2006 when a trip to a Hollywood Video near the Del Paso Country Club in Sacramento turned deadly. As 19-year-old Vardan Abramyan headed inside to rent a movie, his father, Norik Abramyan, 45, waited in their Kia. Gunshots rang out in the parking lot as multiple shooters fired into the vehicle, killing Abramyan.
What seemed like a possible robbery gone wrong quickly unraveled into something closer to home. Investigators learned the getaway car was linked to Vardan Abramyan’s acquaintances: Isaiah Dupree Barron, 19, Battle, then 18, and Jason Dillingham, 18. Prosecutors learned they’d agreed to kill Vardan Abramyan’s father for a shockingly small sum: $3,000 for Barron and just $500 each for Battle and Dillingham…