Man Charged With Murder in Manhattan Beach Slaying

Prosecutors Tuesday filed a murder charge that could result in the death penalty for a parolee accused of killing an office deliveryman who came to the aid of a woman being sexually assaulted at a Manhattan Beach business Friday.

David Wayne Arisman, 48, a parolee with a record of violence, was charged with murder and six other felonies stemming from the midday attack in which 29-year-old Michael Trinidad of Hacienda Heights, an Office Depot employee, was shot to death.

After Arisman pleaded not guilty Tuesday to all charges, South Bay Municipal Judge Thomas R. Sokolov ordered him held without bail and set a preliminary hearing for May 13.

Arisman was charged with one count each of murder, forcible oral copulation and possession of a firearm by a felon, and two counts each of attempted murder and false imprisonment by violence.

Prosecutors also alleged “special circumstances” that would allow prosecutors to decide whether to seek the death penalty--allegations that Trinidad was killed because he was a witness to a sexual assault and that the killing occurred during the commission of robbery, sexual assault and burglary.

According to Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, Trinidad and his partner, Richard Moriel, 41, interrupted the assault on the 27-year-old woman when they arrived to deliver supplies for Answers, a business about to open in the 800 block of Manhattan Beach Boulevard.

All three victims were bound by rope and duct tape, deputies said.

Prosecutors alleged in the complaint that Arisman was previously convicted of violent felonies stemming from a 1988 attack on a Torrance woman.

In 1990, he was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and use of a stun gun--though a jury in Torrance Superior Court acquitted him of attempted murder, the district attorney’s office said.

Sentenced to 10 years in prison, Arisman was paroled after five years, sheriff’s deputies said. Arisman had not reported to his parole agent and authorities had been searching for him, deputies said.