New prosecutor assumes White murder trial
The trial of a 1970s Lithuanian hijack-er who allegedly murdered his father in Santa Monica began this week.
Albert Victor White, who 32 years ago helped his father Pranas “Frank” Brazinskas hijack a Soviet commercial jetliner to escape Cold War-era Lithuania, stands accused of beating to death his 77-year-old father on Feb. 5 during a struggle at their 21st Street apartment.
White, also known as Algirdas Brazinskas, is being tried for first degree murder before a jury in the courtroom of Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William C. Ryan in the Airport Court, located in Westchester.
Officials said they expect the trial, which began Oct. 15, to last between two to three weeks.
Five days before the trial began, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Alyson Messenger assumed the case from Deputy District Attorney Anne Rundle. Neither Rundle nor Messenger were available for comment Friday and court officials said it was unknown why the switch was made.
White’s attorney, Jack Alex, is arguing his client was acting in self-defense because his father had threatened him with a pistol. “(The father) was basically a terrorist,” Alex said. “Albert is not a bad person.”
“(The father) was basically a terrorist. Albert is not a bad person.” — — JACK ALEX Albert White’s attorney
No shots were fired during the argument. But prosecutors handling the case said White deliberately murdered his father with eight blows to the head with a “heavy, blunt object,” crushing his skull.
Detectives have not produced a murder weapon, and White has not admitted to what he used to allegedly kill his father.
The first debilitating blow to the head may have been self-defense, but the other seven were not, prosecutors said.
They paint a picture of White as a violent man with a violent past, who resented his father and wanted him dead.
But White’s attorney describes his client as a caring, nurturing son who stayed home to take care of his father instead of joining his wife — a U.S. State Department attaché — when she was posted to the U.S. embassy in Malaysia.
However, police say that at the time of the murder, Brazinskas had a duffle bag full of loaded guns in the apartment. Alex said Brazinskas was paranoid the KGB would eventually come after him for killing two of their agents during the hijacking, Alex said.
In Lithuania, Brazinskas was wanted for smuggling guns and running criminal rackets, Alex said. He fled his country not because of political discontent but he faced a death sentence or life in a Siberian prison.
In 1970, prosecutors say Brazinskas and his then 13-year-old son hijacked an Aeroflot jetliner and re-directed the airplane to Turkey.
During the flight, Soviet guards on board opened fire. A female steward was killed in the crossfire, and the pilot and copilot were wounded. After the guards were subdued, the flight crew was still able to successfully fly the hijackers to Turkey.
There, the father and son were arrested, convicted of murder and sentenced to prison, but in 1974 they were released, only to be placed under house arrest.
The pair managed to escape custody and fled to the closest American embassy in Ankara to plea for political asylum. Brazinskas said if he and his son had not taken control of the airplane, he would have been put to death for participating in a Lithuanian resistance movement.
Their political asylum request was denied, and the father and son were released back into Turkish custody, but the Soviet Union angrily argued the pair should be extradited. The Turkish government denied the request, causing great international tension.
With pressure mounting, the Turkish government released the pair two weeks later. The father and son fled to Venezuela, where they quickly flew to Canada. But when the plane made a stop over in New York, the pair vanished.
They were arrested a few weeks later by the Immigration and Nationalization Service, but under the newly enacted 1980 Refugee Act, the father and son were allowed to stay even though for political reasons entrance visas would never be issued.
After a few short years living in Queens, N.Y., the father and son moved to Santa Monica to live among the city’s large Lithuanian community. Ever since their dramatic escape from their home country, the pair have become icons among Lithuanian expatriates living in America.
The father and son’s history will play heavily in the trial, Alex said. He plans to call witnesses who will testify that Brazinskas was a violent man who ran a black market gun business in Lithuania.
White remains in the Los Angeles County Jail on $1.2 million bail. He faces 26 years to life in prison, if convicted.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 21, 2002. Read the original PDF.