Liquor Store

Jennifer Kho Police are asking for the community's help in collaring an armed robber who has hit two Costa Mesa liquor stores as well as two others in nearby cities. A man armed with a blue-steel semiautomatic handgun robbed Minute King Markets & Delis at 2052 Newport Blvd. in Costa Mesa on Friday afternoon, police said. Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Burt Santee said the suspect entered the store at 4:41 p.m. and stole an undetermined amount of cash.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second story in a two-part series detailing the top 10 stories to keep an eye on in the coming year.   Newport Beach City Hall’s progress: The Newport Beach City Council is expected to approve a contract in January with the San Francisco-based design firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson to design a new city hall in Newport Center for an estimated $60 million. Preliminary designs for the new municipal complex include an oversized, light-catching sail-like structure on one side of the building that has raised the hackles of some who live in the area.

Here are some items the planning commission considered Monday. LIQUOR STORE Tri Harmony Properties LLC can open a specialty liquor store at the southwest corner of Harbor Boulevard and Adams Avenue, the commission decided. The store will sell imported beer and wine, gourmet foods and glassware. Staff members recommended denying the store a permit because of the high concentration of liquor-sales licenses in the area, but the commission opted to allow the new store with certain restrictions.

Over the last two months Costa Mesa police have arrested 20 people through seven undercover alcohol law enforcement stings. Thanks to a grant from California Alcoholic Beverage Control, police have conducted several types of stings throughout the city since the beginning of the year. Officers have targeted both on-sale and off-sale locations, meaning businesses that sell alcohol to drink on the premises like a restaurant, or to take elsewhere like a liquor store. Police have ticketed five people for violations including selling alcohol to a minor.

Marisa O'Neil Costa Mesa Police had a reunion of sorts on Wednesday night when they arrested a man previously convicted of a series of liquor store robberies in Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach. He was outside a liquor store when they took him into custody Wednesday. Officers recognized Newport Beach resident Michael Wade Dunkovich, also known as the "Yellow Jacket Bandit," as he pulled into a parking lot at the corner of Adams Avenue and Harbor Boulevard.

Andrew Glazer MESA DEL MAR -- One of the soon-to-be owners of a dilapidated strip mall believes new management, along with ideas from area residents, will make the shopping center shine. Jeff Pratt, a managing member of El Camino Partners Inc. -- the prospective buyer of the shopping center at El Camino and Mendoza drives -- said Monday the deal is expected to close this week. "It can be improved a lot but needs a little TLC," he said. Pratt added that the owners had neglected the shopping center, which includes: a pub, liquor store, small supermarket, coin-operated laundry, gas station and bakery.

Marisa O'Neil Some hapless thieves yanked an ATM from a liquor store early Friday morning, but the unauthorized withdrawal got no further than the parking lot. Police showed up at Cheers Liquor on Mesa Verde Drive East after a robbery alarm sounded at about 6 a.m. Friday, Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Marty Carver said. When officers got there, they found the ATM lying in the parking lot and the front window of the store smashed, he said. "It looks like they backed into the window because there were tire tracks there," Carver said.

Soon after the repeal of Prohibition, a liquor store opened on Balboa. It was on the oceanfront in the space previously occupied by Dirty George and his hamburger stand. For us dedicated beachgoers, this was a great improvement. When Dirty George left, he took with him all his flies, which had become something of a problem for us. The beach was quite narrow in those days, and the only way you could get away from Dirty George's flies was to get in the water, and there is only so long you can stay in the water without getting pneumonia.

BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS Arson believed to be cause of car fire Costa Mesa police and fire officials were called to a suspicious vehicle fire on the 1300 block of Logan early Sunday morning. Police say that the parked car, a Nissan Altima, was burning from the inside around 4:30 a.m. Police say they believe that the fire was started intentionally and are investigating. The owners suffered about $15,000 worth of damage to the car. Costa Mesa store robbed on Saturday A man robbed the Kap N Keg liquor store on the 3100 block of Harbor Boulevard on Saturday, according to Costa Mesa police.

BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS Man brandishes gun, isn't caught Costa Mesa Police are looking for a man who reportedly pulled out a handgun and brandished it, officials said. The incident happened at about 12:20 p.m. in the 300 block of West Bay Street, Costa Mesa Police Lt. Dale Birney said. "This guy pulled out a gun and then fled," he said. "He was last seen running on Newport Boulevard toward a liquor store." Several police cars, gang unit officers and the department's helicopter searched for the man shortly afterward, but couldn't find him, Birney said.

CORONA DEL MAR — Around the corner from the Frisbee rack, on the other side of the California Lottery machine, rested some glass vases with bouquets of lilies and other fresh flowers. The juxtaposition caught Frank Arriola by surprise. When he walked into Corona del Mar's Korker Liquor to get his daily Lotto ticket, as he has been doing for years, he asked the clerk about the flowers. Did someone crash into the window and apologize? No, the young clerk told him. They were there for the clerk's father, Daniel Yegenian, the store's owner who died Oct. 31 from heart failure.

SANTA ANA — Sentencing for Weston Scott Kruger, who killed a Newport Beach liquor store owner in 2007, has been postponed until Aug. 27 due to an issue regarding the labeling of a surveillance tape used as evidence in the case. An Orange County Superior Court judge on Friday delayed the sentencing because the exhibit and its identifying form did not match — an error made by the court. The exhibit is a compact disc containing surveillance footage from the day of the incident.

A torn pornographic magazine was the deciding factor for an Orange County Superior Court jury in convicting a Newport Harbor High School graduate Wednesday of first-degree murder for knocking down and killing a liquor store clerk. The jury of eight women and four men took about nine hours at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana to find Weston Scott Kruger, 31, guilty of killing Newport Beach liquor store owner and clerk Hao “Tony” Huynh. The 100-pound Huynh died after a scuffle with the 6-foot-5, 275-pound Kruger on July 28, 2007, outside Sportsman’s Liquor Store, 2615 Newport Blvd.

A jury has convicted Weston Scott Kruger of first degree murder in the 2007 shoving death of a Newport Beach liquor store owner. The jury delivered a verdict of guilty Wednesday morning at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana. Kruger, 31, a Newport Harbor High School graduate, was charged with murder for fatally shoving liquor store owner Hao “Tony” Huynh. Witnesses testified that Kruger pushed Huynh so hard, that the victim was lifted in the air and landed with a crash on the back of his head that cracked Huynh's skull.

Knowing that convicting someone of murder weighs heavily on the minds of jurors, Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy hammered home the idea of accountability, when he gave his closing arguments Monday in the murder trial of Weston Scott Kruger. “If you decide to use force to take something from someone else, they better not get hurt because we as a society are going to hold you responsible,” Murphy told the jury at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana. “If you kill them while taking their stuff, regardless if its worth 2 cents or $2 million, regardless of intent we’re going to hold you responsible for that death.

Attorneys will likely begin selecting jurors this week in the trial of Weston Scott Kruger, who is accused of killing a Newport Beach liquor store owner in 2007 by shoving him to the ground while stealing a pornographic magazine. Kruger, 31, a former Newport Harbor High School football player, is accused of murder with enhancements for allegedly committing the crime while out of custody on an armed robbery arrest earlier that year and a domestic violence charge in 2006. Prosecutors are waiting for a courtroom at Santa Ana’s Central Justice Center to open so they can begin the proceedings, officials said Monday.

Over the last two months Costa Mesa police have arrested 20 people through seven undercover alcohol law enforcement stings. Thanks to a grant from California Alcoholic Beverage Control, police have conducted several types of stings throughout the city since the beginning of the year. Officers have targeted both on-sale and off-sale locations, meaning businesses that sell alcohol to drink on the premises like a restaurant, or to take elsewhere like a liquor store. Police have ticketed five people for violations including selling alcohol to a minor.

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.