A federal prosecutor said today he expects a decision by early January on whether the death penalty will be sought against a 24-year-old suspect accused in a deadly shooting spree at Los Angeles International Airport.
The ultimate decision on whether death is an appropriate penalty in the case against Paul Anthony Ciancia is up to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald told U.S. District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez during a brief hearing that his office had provided its recommendation to Holder as to the penalty, but did not indicate what that was.
“At this time we do not have a decision from the Attorney General,” Fitzgerald told the court, adding that he hoped to have an answer in time for the next status conference case on Jan. 5.
The prosecutor indicated that a meeting had taken place in September with members of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles and Ciancia’s lawyers, and the results of those discussions were passed on to Holder’s office last month.
Ciancia, who stands a little over 5 feet, was brought to court in green and white jail clothing, shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles.
Prosecutors said at a previous hearing in August that they had accumulated about 10,000 pages and 150 DVDs of discovery in the case, including material collected during a probe of Ciancia’s background in the small town of Pennsville, N.J., which they had presented to the defense.
Three charges in the 11-count indictment against Ciancia carry the potential for a death sentence: murder of a federal officer, use of a firearm that led to the murder, and act of violence in an international airport.
Ciancia had been living in Sun Valley for about two years when he allegedly stormed into Terminal 3 on Nov. 1, 2013, with an assault rifle, killing Transportation Security Administration agent Gerardo Hernandez and wounding three others — two other TSA workers and one traveler.
Ciancia allegedly shot Hernandez at a lower-level LAX passenger check-in station and began walking upstairs, but returned when he realized Hernandez was still alive and shot him again.
In addition to first-degree murder, the indictment charges Ciancia with two counts of attempted murder for the shootings of TSA officers Tony Grigsby and James Speer. Brian Ludmer, a Calabasas teacher, was also wounded.
Ciancia is also charged with committing acts of violence at an international airport, one count of using a firearm to commit murder, and three counts of brandishing and discharging a firearm.
During the shooting spree, Ciancia was allegedly carrying a handwritten, signed note saying he wanted to kill TSA agents and “instill fear in their traitorous minds,” along with dozens of rounds of ammunition. Witnesses to the shooting said the gunman asked them whether they worked for the TSA, and if they said no, he moved on.
Ciancia was shot in the head and leg during a gun battle with airport police. He spent more than two weeks at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center before he was moved to a San Bernardino facility and subsequently to the downtown Metropolitan Detention Center, where he remains held without bail.
Gutierrez was adamant that the case would be tried next year, although defense attorney Hilary L. Potashner said in August that she may ask for more time if death is sought.
