After a pair of back-to-back missed court hearings, an L.A. County Superior Court judge Wednesday ordered sheriff’s deputies to use more secure means to ensure a murder suspect’s appearance in court Friday.
Grigor Hovsepyan, 23, is set to start trial on a murder charge later this month in connection with the May 1, 2024, shooting death of Gavin Unzueta, a College of the Canyons student.
Hovsepyan, a Granada Hills resident, has already had two meetings on the calendar for this week — and he missed them both.
Back in March, Judge Hilleri Merritt set a pretrial conference for Tuesday, and an eight-day trial time was estimated, with a trial tentatively scheduled to begin May 19.
Then Hovsepyan missed his hearings on Monday and Tuesday, according to the minute orders for Department J in the San Fernando Courthouse, where the case is being heard.
An extraction order was issued Tuesday for Wednesday, but it failed to yield results.
“The defendant is a refusal,” according to the minute order. “An extraction order including the language that a safety chair may be used is signed by the court and provided to the Sheriff’s Department.”
A Santa Clarita Courthouse bailiff on Wednesday described the device as a wheelchair with restraints.
With the new order, Merritt then “trailed” the case to Friday, when Hovsepyan is again required to appear.
The L.A. County District Attorney’s Office has indicated it is not seeking the death penalty in Hovsepyan’s trial, but the defendant could receive life without parole if convicted of the first-degree murder charge.
Unzueta was in a car with friends who testified at Hovsepyan’s preliminary hearing in May 2025 that they were throwing eggs at cars near the top of Reseda Boulevard when one of those cars came after them.
A Los Angeles Police Department detective testified that four 9mm shells were recovered at the shooting scene. The investigator also testified that Hovsepyan talked about the shooting with a cellmate who, in reality, was an undercover officer.
Two months after Hovsepyan’s preliminary hearing, his attorneys filed a mental competency challenge. The case ultimately returned to criminal court in December, after a pair of evaluations looking at Hovsepyan’s mental health cleared him for trial.
He remains in the custody of Men’s Central Jail in Downtown Los Angeles, where he’s being held without bail. He’s been in custody since August 2024.
