Sentence Upheld In Santa Monica Home Invasion Robbery Case

SANTA MONICA, CA — A state appellate court panel has rejected an appeal from a man convicted of a Santa Monica home invasion robbery where a resident was shot.

In a March 27 ruling, a three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal turned down Vacho Shahen's claim that then-Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Henry Hall erred in sentencing him to 46 years and eight months in state prison.

At the June 2024 sentencing, Hall called Shahen's crimes ``extremely sophisticated and well-planned,'' saying the only victim who resisted was shot.

The judge said his intention in sentencing Shahen was to ``keep him (the defendant) out of society for as long as humanly possible.''

Shahen, now 40, was convicted in May 2024 of 15 charges, including three counts each of home invasion robbery and assault with a firearm, four counts of first-degree burglary and five counts of false imprisonment, stemming from the crime spree in Downey, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica over about two weeks in August 2016.

The victims in the early morning attacks in Downey and Beverly Hills were handcuffed during the robberies, with the victims in Downey subsequently left in handcuffs afterward, according to Deputy District Attorney David Borsack.

Jurors acquitted Shahen of attempted murder in the shooting of the man during the Santa Monica burglary, but found him guilty of the less serious crime of assault with a firearm.

Santa Monica police said in 2018 that they had identified Shahen as a suspect in the crimes and that he was being held at the time in federal custody in Philadelphia on an unrelated case.

Santa Monica police detectives and a forensics unit discovered DNA at the crime scene in Santa Monica that authorities used to eventually link Shahen to the home invasion robberies in Downey and Beverly Hills.

Shahen was extradited to Southern California in November 2021.

City News Service contributed to this report.