| For Immediate Release Case # 07HF0954
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Susan Kang Schroeder Public Affairs Counsel Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami |
MAN SENTENCED TO 11 YEARS IN PRISON FOR STABBING AND KILLING LAKE FOREST BAR
PATRON IN PARKING LOT FIGHT
SANTA ANA – An Anaheim man was sentenced today to 11 years in state prison for stabbing and killing another man outside of a Lake Forest bar. Jean Pierre Castellanos, 24, was found guilty by a jury on Aug. 4, 2008, of voluntary manslaughter with a true finding on the sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon.
At approximately 1:00 a.m. on May 8, 2007, Castellanos and two friends were leaving Big Shots Bar and Grill in Lake Forest. Timothy Matthew Jones, 26, was still inside the bar as his girlfriend, Andrea Leeonna Connelly, 30, and another friend also began to leave. When Connelly bumped into Castellanos’ friend, the two groups got into a verbal argument that escalated into a fist fight in the parking lot. When Jones came out of the bar to help his friends, Castellanos took out a knife and stabbed the victim three times in the stomach, chest, and face. Jones was taken to Mission Hospital, where he later died.
Connelly, who encouraged the fight and hit both Castellanos and his friend, was convicted of two misdemeanor counts of assault and two misdemeanor counts of battery on May 29, 2008, and was sentenced to 120 days in jail.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh of the Homicide Unit prosecuted this case.
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