SACRAMENTO, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- A young California man has been sentenced to life in prison with no parole for paying for and helping set up his father's murder.
Vardan Abramyan, 22, said nothing during a short sentencing hearing Wednesday, the Sacramento Bee reported. Superior Judge James L. Long said his father, Norik, was gunned down "in cold blood" in the parking lot of a video store in July 2006.
During his trial, Vardan Abramyan said he arranged the killing because he was trying to protect his mother and sisters, describing his father as abusive of his family. Jurors found him guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances -- that he killed his father for money and that Norik was ambushed.
Investigators said Abramyan lured his father to the video store and then called the hired killers. Isaiah Dupree Barron, who was paid $4,000 to make arrangements for the shooting, and Arthur James Battle and Jason Dillingham, who carried it out for $500 each, have received life sentences.
