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Crime & Safety

UPDATE: Pair Gets 25-Year Prison Sentence For $1 Million Kidnap Plot

Vagan Adzhemyan, 43, of Costa Mesa, and 33-year-old Galvin "Shaun" Gibson of Mira Loma each faces up to 30 years behind bars.

Two Southlanders were each sentenced today to more than 25 years in federal prison for kidnapping a Russian man who was shot from behind, zapped with a Taser and held captive for nearly a week while his abductors demanded a $1 million ransom.

Vagan Adzhemyan, 43, of Costa Mesa was handed a 30-year sentence by U.S. District Judge Jacqueline H. Nguyen, who said the defendant stalked the victim, planned and carried out the kidnapping and orchestrated the ransom demand.

Galvin "Shaun" Gibson, 33, of Mira Loma was sentenced to 27 years behind bars for his role in the 2009 kidnapping of Sandro Karmryan, a former Sherman Oaks resident involved in the real estate business.

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Both defendants were convicted by a Los Angeles federal jury in May 2010 of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. The charges carry a maximum life penalty.

A third defendant, Suren Garibyan, 34, of North Hollywood pleaded guilty and was sentenced by Nguyen last year to more than 17 years in prison.

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During the three-hour sentencing hearing, Adzhemyan's attorney argued that the abduction was justified because his client was trying to protect himself from what he believed to be a Russian mafia hit placed on him by Karmryan.

"He did what he believed he had to do ... to protect himself," defense attorney Harland Braun told the court. "This was a kidnapping designed for self-defense. ... What else was he to do?"

Assistant U.S. Attorney E. Martin Estrada countered that there is no evidence that Karmryan threatened anyone, calling the need for kidnapping as self-defense "absolutely absurd."

Through an Armenian translator, a heated Adzhemyan told the judge that Karmryan was kidnapped because "I was trying to save my life."

If Karmryan had not been taken hostage, "I would've been dead three or four years ago," Adzhemyan said.

Gibson, Adzhemyan and Garibyan were arrested in August 2009, when the victim was rescued from Gibson's home by a team of Los Angeles Police Department SWAT officers.

Karmryan had been shot in the buttocks, and the bullet had traveled upward in his body, causing internal injuries, according to the prosecution. At the time he was rescued, Karmryan "was on the verge of death," Nguyen said today.

Adzhemyan, who was described as a onetime championship wrestler in the former Soviet Union, "acted completely without a conscience or remorse ... even after learning how close the victim was to dying," the judge said.

"Even if Mr. Karmryan was the world's greatest fraudster, nobody deserves" what happened to him, Nguyen said.

In sentencing Gibson, the judge said that while the defendant played a slightly lesser role in the scheme, "you did participate knowingly and willingly."

Nguyen said she had also taken into consideration Gibson's previous conviction for manslaughter.

In a tearful statement to the court, Gibson said he had "destroyed" his own life by allowing himself to be "placed in a situation that doesn't concern me."

During trial, jurors heard evidence that Adzhemyan and Garibyan grabbed Karmryan from the underground parking garage of a Van Nuys apartment complex in the early morning hours of July 29, 2009. Over the next five days, they and Gibson held him at various Southland locations and kept him bound and blindfolded, the victim testified.

During the time he was held captive, the kidnappers forced Karmryan to call family members and associates in California and Russia to plead for a $1 million ransom in exchange for his release, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert E. Dugdale.

Adzhemyan used Karmryan's ATM card to withdraw cash from his bank account, while Gibson and his three pit bulls guarded the victim in Mira Loma, according to testimony presented at trial.

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