A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ordered a murder suspect’s girlfriend out of custody this week, after she refused to acknowledge the witness oath on the stand or provide testimony against her beau, according to court records.
Grigor Hovsepyan, 25, of Mission Hills, stands charged with murder, two counts of attempted murder and several special allegations in a 2024 car-to-car shooting that left Gavin Unzueta, a College of the Canyons student, dead and two of his friends wounded.
On Thursday, Judge Hilleri Merritt ordered Hovsepyan’s girlfriend, Italia Sosa, to appear in court for Monday’s proceedings, with an order for the Sheriff’s Department “extraction unit” to remove her from custody.
Merritt found Sosa in contempt of a direct court order Thursday, after she was summoned to the stand for a second day in a row and refused to acknowledge the oath required for testimony both days, according to the minute order for Department J in the San Fernando Courthouse.
She was ordered to appear daily until further order.
“The court advises Ms. Sosa that she does not have the right to refuse to answer in regards to the oath administered,” the record stated. “A hearing will be set for contempt of court for Ms. Sosa.”
Jury selection also took place Thursday.
Carlos Lira Morales, who was appointed to represent Sosa from the Independent Defense Counsel Office, said Monday afternoon that a contempt hearing had not been set yet, and he was “not at liberty” to comment further.
Merritt presided over Hovsepyan’s readiness hearing Oct. 12, and advised Hovsepyan that he has the right and obligation to appear, but the court will proceed without him if he doesn’t.
His absence will constitute a voluntary waiver of those rights, Merritt said, according to the minute order from last week’s hearing.
Hovsepyan also had issues with appearing in court, and was issued a similar order and admonished in May over his refusal to attend the proceedings against him, after he was declared mentally competent to stand trial.
Sosa keys into the prosecution’s case.
Unzueta and his friends, Nick Sanchez and Paul Lopez, were in a car that was driving around egging vehicles near Reseda Point when Hovsepyan’s car was struck, according to Sanchez’s previous testimony.
Hovsepyan, who was driving, caught up to the car and fired several rounds into it, according to evidence from the preliminary hearing. Unzueta sustained a fatal gunshot wound to his chest in the shooting.
Testimony during Hovsepyan’s preliminary hearing involved statements from an undercover Los Angeles Police Department officer in Hovsepyan’s cell on the night of his arrest. The officer indicated Hovsepyan told him that Sosa was in the car with him at the time of the shooting and was “turned on” by the violence.
Hovsepyan’s trial proceedings were still under way Monday afternoon.
