Armenian Power 13 Fuck WF Rest In Peace ''Silent'' (Armen Petrosyan) by (Sad Eyes-Super Sako) Street Legend Armen "Silent" Petrosyan, a founder of Armenian Power, was shot to death on May 22, 2000 by Jose Argueta, a member of Latino gang White Fence When 15-year-old Armen Petrosyan arrived in east Hollywood from Armenia in 1989, he was thrust into an urban environment where large, long-established street gangs--in this case, Mexican American and Salvadoran--often preyed on a smaller group of new immigrants. Outnumbered, Petrosyan and two friends formed a defense alliance that grew into the Armenian Power street gang, which at its peak in the mid-1990s had about 120 members. Petrosyan's Armenian Power leadership ended about 2 1/2 years ago, when he decided he would get out before he got life in prison or death on the streets, relatives said. But last May 22, he made a fatal dining choice--he went to his old haunt for a hamburger. Like an old Mafioso mowed down during dinner, Petrosyan was shot dead as he relaxed in the patio area of his favorite Armenian restaurant, Souren's Deli on Hollywood Boulevard. On Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, an eight-woman, four-man jury convicted Jose Argueta, 17, a member of White Fence, a longtime Latino gang, of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Petrosyan, 27, had not been a specific target but just happened to be seated at the wrong place at the wrong time, authorities say. He was gunned down, they say, in revenge for an act of disrespect earlier that day that did not involve him. Argueta, a Central American native, faces 50 years to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 28. "This is your classic case of gang warfare and retaliation. There was no other reason to kill Mr. Petrosyan," said Deputy Dist. Atty. Darrell Mavis, who intends to ask Superior Court Judge Mark V. Mooney to sentence Argueta to life in prison. "The defendant set out on a mission to kill. He talked about how he was going to do a walk-up killing. Then, he executed Mr. Petrosyan." As part of his defense, Argueta had claimed that he did not shoot Petrosyan. On Monday jurors watched a videotaped interrogation in which Argueta said that he "gave a mission" to "Sappo," a new member of White Fence, to carry out the killing. In the taped police interview, Argueta--who goes by the street name "Lil' Crazy"--admitted that he not only told Sappo to shoot an Armenian Power member at the modest restaurant, but even told him how to hold the weapon: with the palm of the shooting hand facing down, gang style. Detectives have never located "Sappo" and say they are unsure if he exists. According to evidence presented during the four-day trial, bullets fired from a gun found on Argueta shortly after the shooting matched the bullet removed from Petrosyan's body, and gunpowder residue was found on Argueta's hands. Initially, police suspected that Petrosyan was slain in retribution for the killing 17 days earlier of a Latino student at Hoover High School in Glendale, allegedly by Armenian American youths. But they quickly discounted that theory.