VALLEY VILLAGE, LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A man was charged with murder for allegedly killing another man after breaking into his Valley Village apartment last month, officials said Friday.
Erick Escamilla, 27, was arrested when the FBI and Los Angeles police detectives found him at a local hospital Thursday.
Filing of the charges comes on the same day the victim’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the apartment complex where the stabbing happened.
Murder suspect arrested
Escamilla’s apprehension ended a nearly two-week manhunt that began April 26 when police conducted a welfare check at the Ashton Sherman Village complex in the 12600 block of Riverside Drive. Inside the fifth-floor unit, officers found 53-year-old Menashe Hidra dead.
Hidra died three days prior to the welfare check, prosecutors said.
Police said Escamilla accessed the roof of the apartment building and used a skylight to enter the apartment next door to Hidra’s unit. Escamilla then climbed from the balcony of the vacant unit to the one attached to Hidra’s apartment and went inside, leading to a “violent confrontation” with the victim.
Escamilla fatally stabbed Hidra with a screwdriver, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office alleges. The stabbing happened just before 4 a.m. on April 23.
The suspect was also allegedly seen on Ring doorbell video trying to get into apartments using a screwdriver.
Neighbors say they heard the struggle and called 911, but police did not enter the apartment.
Escamilla was charged with one count each of murder and residential burglary. The murder charge includes a special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of a burglary, along with allegations that he personally used a screwdriver in attacking the victim and that he has a prior strike for a residential burglary.
Wrongful death lawsuit filed
Residents of the apartment complex told Eyewitness News that they had notified management of their safety concerns prior to the murder and had complained about transients breaking into the complex.
They said they’re frustrated that they’ve gotten little help from the property management company and said the murder shouldn’t have happened.
Attorney Steve Vartazarian represents Hidra’s family in a wrongful death lawsuit filed Friday against the Ashton Sherman Village complex. The lawsuit claims management repeatedly ignored concerned residents.
“I have over 50 written complaints to property management in the six months before this incident occurred on April 23,” he said.
Vartazarian said the killing was preventable.
“It’s the most egregious form of neglect that I’ve ever come across in all my years of practicing law,” Vartazarian told Eyewitness News.
Hidra was from Tel Aviv and ran a roofing business. Hours after the arrest, one of Hidra’s neighbors across the hall said she wanted justice for him and his family.
“A man was killed at random for absolutely no reason, for something that was easily preventable,” Vartazarian said.
Eyewitness News reached out to the property management for comment but has not heard back.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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