| For Immediate Release January 23, 2006 |
Contact: | Susan Kang Schroeder Deputy District Attorney (714) 347-8408 Office (714) 292-2718 Cell |
COSTA MESA MAN CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTED MURDER FOR RUNNING DOWN FATHER OF THREE IN HIS BMW
NEWPORT BEACH – The Orange County District Attorney’s Office announced the filing of charges against a Costa Mesa man for running down a loving husband and a father of three who shouted at him to slow down in a parking lot in Aliso Viejo. Morteza Bakhtiari, 26, was charged with attempted murder with premeditation and deliberation, felony hit and run with bodily injury, misdemeanor hit and run with damage to an unoccupied Mercedes Benz parked in the lot, and filing of a false police report. If convicted of all charges, he could be sent to state prison for life.
On January 19, 2006, at about 11:30 p.m., victim John Royston, 41, Aliso Viejo, was standing in the parking lot with two friends. The defendant was driving with a passenger in his silver BMW to a restaurant called Opah. The victim and his friends shouted at the defendant to slow down. The defendant is accused of speeding and driving erratically in the parking lot and hitting a parked Mercedes Benz with his BMW. The defendant is accused of deliberately aiming his BMW at the victim and running him over. The victim remains hospitalized in a medically induced coma.
On Friday January 27, at about 6 a.m., a witness walking a dog saw a silver BMW parked in Mission Viejo. The car had damages to its front end and windshield. The BMW was registered to the defendant. Later that afternoon at about 4:30 p.m., the defendant is accused of reporting his car stolen to the Costa Mesa Police Department. Bakhtiari was later arrested on Friday.
Bakhtiari will be in court for the first time in Harbor Justice Center, Newport Beach, at 9 a.m. tomorrow. Bakhtiari remains in custody on $1 million bail. Senior Deputy District Attorney Scott Simmons is prosecuting the case.
###