Suspect in store owner’s murder heads to court

The murder trial of a Newport Beach man accused of robbing and killing a liquor store owner in 2007 should begin early next month, officials from the Orange County district attorney’s office said Monday.

Weston Scott Kruger, 31, is accused of killing Sportsman Liquor Store owner Hao “Tony” Quang Huynh in July 2007. Sportsman Liquor Store is on Newport Boulevard near 28th Street in Newport Beach.

Police said Kruger went into the store to buy cigarettes and, while there, hid a pornographic magazine in his shorts. Huynh noticed the magazine and chased Kruger outside the store as he threatened to call police, Det. Joseph Cartwright testified during last year’s preliminary hearing.

Kruger, a former football player for Newport Harbor High School, is 6-foot-5 and weighs more than 250 pounds. Police said he pushed the 5-foot-3, 110-pound Huynh to the ground, cracking open the back of his head. Huynh died a day later in the hospital.

The murder trial is one of three felony cases that Kruger faces. Prosecutors said Kruger killed Huynh while Kruger was out on bail, pending an armed robbery charge and another charge of beating his girlfriend. Police said Kruger beat his girlfriend with a metal pole and shoved her face into a bowl of dog food in 2006.

Court records indicate that Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy might combine the domestic violence case with the murder case because the trials are scheduled for the same day.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Nov. 2.

— Joseph Serna