REDWOOD
CITY — A Woodside man arrested on suspicion of slaying his wife in the
couple's multimillion-dollar home has been charged with the special
circumstance of murder for financial gain, which could leave him facing
the death penalty, a prosecutor said.
Pooroushasb "Peter"
Parineh, 64, was arraigned Monday afternoon on charges he killed Parima
Parineh, and is being held without bail. He didn't speak to the judge
during the brief hearing.
Peter Parineh told investigators that
he came home on the afternoon of April 13 to find his wife dead in the
couple's home at 50 Fox Hill Road. He said it was a suicide, but
investigators later learned she had been shot twice in the head.
Parineh
was arrested Thursday in Sunnyvale after a nearly two-month
investigation. Authorities haven't released what evidence led them to
make the arrest.
Prosecutor Al Giannini said he could not reveal details of the case, but added Peter Parineh was having money problems.
"His financial situation was such he would have benefitted greatly" from his wife's death, he said.
The
couple's Fox Hill home was in foreclosure at the time Parima Parineh
died and they had not paid property taxes on that house, which they
bought for $5.1 million, since December 2008. Peter Parineh, a real
estate broker, also faced some legal problems. A court ordered him in
February 2009 to pay $1.1 million to settle a lawsuit over a real
estate deal gone bad.
Police also said they
believed that Parima Parineh had a life insurance policy that was worth
millions of dollars. Giannini confirmed the existence of the insurance
policy, but wouldn't discuss its amount.
Parima Parineh was a
painter who came to the United States from her native Iran when she was
22. She won awards for her work and participated in numerous shows.
The San Mateo County District Attorney's Office will decide in the coming months whether to seek the death penalty.