Man's Conviction Upheld for Killing Fellow Partygoer at Persian New Year's Party

 A state appeals court panel today upheld a man's conviction for fatally shooting a longtime instructor from Pasadena's Art Center College of Design during a party at the Westlake Village home of the victim's mother-in-law.

The three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense's contention that Steven Ronald Honma had been deprived of a fair trial because of the way jury selection was done in his case in Van Nuys Superior Court.

Honma was convicted in November 2011 of voluntary manslaughter in the March 20, 2010, killing of Norman Schureman of Altadena. Jurors acquitted Honma of first-degree murder and second-degree murder.

Schureman, a 50-year-old Altadena father of two young sons, was shot once in the abdomen and died several hours later at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.

Honma -- who was a neighbor of Schureman's mother-in-law -- was involved in a struggle after returning to the party, from which he had earlier been escorted out, armed with two guns and a knife, according to Deputy District Attorney Maureen Green.

One of the men in attendance noticed that Honma was armed and took a gun out of the defendant's pocket, while another man who had been struggling with Honma lost his grip on the gunman's wrist.

At that point, Schureman noticed the struggle and tried to intervene. He "ran up and jumped on defendant and said, 'I got shot,"' according to the appellate court panel's 25-page ruling.

The prosecution theorized that Honma came back to the party to provoke a fight in order to be able to use the firearm in a feigned need for self- defense, Deputy District Attorney Maureen Green said after the verdict.

Honma's trial attorney, Dmitry Gorin, said after the jury's verdict that Honma suffered head trauma and facial fractures during the struggle, which occurred after his client had been escorted out of the party by other guests because of "intoxication and strange behavior."

The defense contended that Honma, an engineer, had no intent to hurt anyone and that the gun went off accidentally after he was confronted.

Honma was sentenced in February 2012 to 21 years in state prison.

—from City News Service reports