Man in deadly 2010 Valley Village restaurant shooting gets life in prison

VALLEY VILLAGE, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A man who opened fire six years ago at a Valley Village restaurant, killing four people, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday.

Calculated, callous, extremely violent and unprovoked is how the judge described the April 2010 attack by Nerses Galstyan on six of his friends and acquaintances.

She sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole, saying nothing in the defendant's actions showed he was afraid of the victims -- as he claimed during the trial, citing self-defense.

The defendant said he was planning to appeal the sentence.

Galstyan was convicted of sending a volley of 50 rounds into a Mediterranean restaurant in Valley Village during a memorial gathering.

He was sitting at a table with the victims when he got into a dispute with several acquaintances. He then left the restaurant, got a gun from his car, walked back in and opened fire.

He shot one of his victims 10 times, striking him in the chest and the back of the head execution style.

Two of the victims' mothers read victim impact statements. One hardly held back tears as she said "there is no greater pain in the world than a child's death, especially when there was no reason to kill my son."

She said her tears haven't stopped flowing even after six years, and she will never get over her son's death.

Though the sentence does not bring back any of the victims or stop the pain for any of the families, many loved ones of the victims said it does bring them closure.