LA junkie charged with killing ‘American Idol' boss Robin Kaye and her husband allegedly used couple's gun in double murder
Raymond Boodarian, 22, allegedly broke into the couple's $4.5 million Encino mansion on July 10 and found their firearm as he rummaged about, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said during a public meeting at the neighborhood's community center Monday.
When the couple, who are both 70, came home from grocery shopping and walked in on the burglary, Boodarian allegedly turned their own gun on them and fired.
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3 Robin Kaye and her husband Thomas Deluca, both 70, were shot to death at home on July 10.
'It was Robyn and Tom's gun,' Hochman said at the meeting, which was attended by more than 100 concerned residents, NBC News reported. 'It wasn't his gun. It was exceptionally tragic.'
Boodarian then called police with his own cell phone after the killing and gave his name, which Hochman said ultimately led to police tracking him down and arresting him a day after the bodies were found.
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'Mr. Boodarian got caught because he used his cell phone to contact police concerning the situation, actually identified himself by name,' Hochman said. 'Police were able to ping the cell phone, find out where he lived, go to his residence and arrest him.'
But it remains unclear when Boodarian made that call to police, or exactly what he said in it.
3 Raymond Boodarian, 22, was arrested at his home two days after the 70-year-old couple's bodies were found.
TMZ
Officers responded to Kaye and Deluca's home on the day of the killing after neighbors reported seeing somebody jump the fence. But nothing was apparently wrong as they looked into the property from the street, so they left.
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It wasn't until four days later when they returned to the home for a welfare check that they found the bodies — with a trail of blood winding to the home's front door, and a back door smashed open.
Inside, Kaye was found dead in the pantry and Deluca in a bathroom, according to PEOPLE.
Boodarian was arrested the next day at his own home, located about 15 minutes away from the crime scene.
3 The $4.5 million mansion where Kaye and Deluca were murdered is 15 minutes from Boodarian's home.
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And the arrest wasn't his first for violent behavior.
He was arrested three times between November 2023 and June 2024 for allegations of battery and threatening family members with a knife.
But all the charges were dropped over mental incompetency after he served just six months in custody, and he was turned loose.
His neighbors also told The Post that he was a nuisance on their street, and that he regularly wandered about high on drugs and menacing residents.
Encino locals expressed alarm that he'd been freed after such a record of arrests — especially since their neighborhood has been plagued by an uptick in crime in recent years.
'We're having phenomenal numbers on crime reduction,' LAPD Deputy Chief Marla Ciuffetelli said, according to ABC7 Los Angeles. 'That being said, when two wonderful people end up dead in their own home, those crime statistics fall kind of flat.'
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