Nshan Balyan, a 30-year-old White/Caucasian male from North Hollywood, was found dead on April 28, 2016, after his body was discovered in Burbank, California. The discovery was made shortly after midday in an empty dirt lot near the railroad tracks behind Stock Lumber on North Victory Boulevard. His body had been wrapped almost entirely in plastic, with only his feet exposed, leaving investigators to initially treat the scene as suspicious before the coroner confirmed the case was a
homicide.
Authorities determined that Balyan had died from multiple gunshot wounds. Early in the investigation, Burbank police said they did not believe he had been killed where he was found. Instead, the condition of the scene suggested his body had been transported and dumped in the vacant lot. Detectives began looking through surveillance footage from the surrounding area and searching for witnesses who might have seen suspicious activity near the lumber yard or the railroad tracks.
The investigation quickly moved beyond Burbank. Surveillance video from nearby cameras showed a white truck connected to the dumping of Balyan’s body. That truck was later located at a home in the 6700 block of Orion Avenue in Van Nuys. Burbank police served a search warrant at the residence, recovered evidence, and detained several people there. One man, Hector Balcacer, was arrested at the home on an unrelated receiving-stolen-property charge, but the homicide investigation itself was turned over to the Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley Bureau Homicide Division after investigators concluded that the killing had occurred in Los Angeles rather than Burbank.
Court records later revealed a much clearer picture of what investigators believed happened. The case centered on Luis Francisco Herrera, Carlos Rafael Lopez, and Ivan Marcelo Masabanda. According to the appellate record, investigators determined that Balyan had been flirting with Herrera’s girlfriend, and Herrera ordered Lopez to kill Balyan if he came to the Orion Avenue house. On April 27, 2016, Balyan went to that house. Lopez shot him, and Masabanda helped clean up afterward. The next day, Balyan’s plastic-wrapped body was found dumped in Burbank.
Herrera and Lopez were arrested and charged with murder, while Masabanda was charged as an accessory to murder. Herrera initially pleaded not guilty, but on January 8, 2019, he changed his plea to no contest to second-degree murder. He received a sentence of 15 years to life in state prison, along with fines and custody credit. Herrera later appealed, but the California Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment in January 2020.
The available online sources identify Herrera as the person who ordered the killing, Lopez as the person who shot Balyan, and Masabanda as the person who helped clean up after the murder. Publicly available reports and court summaries provide detailed information about Herrera’s conviction and sentence, but they do not provide the same level of detail about the final outcome of the charges against Lopez or Masabanda.
