Case # 15HF1045
Date: September 14, 2015
THIRD-STRIKER, WHITE SUPREMACIST GANG MEMBER PAROLEE TO BE ARRAIGNED FOR STABBING-MURDER OF PATRON DURING BAR FIGHT
SANTA ANA, Calif. – A third-striker, white supremacist gang member parolee is scheduled to be arraigned today for stabbing and murdering a patron during a bar fight in Laguna Niguel. Craig Matthew Tanber, 37, Los Alamitos, is charged with one felony count of murder with sentencing enhancements for the personal use of a knife and prior strike convictions for voluntary manslaughter, dissuading a witness by force, street terrorism, and assault with a deadly weapon in 2007, residential burglary in 2001, and serving a prison term for one year or more and not remaining free for more than five years. If convicted, Tanber faces a maximum sentence of 76 years to life in state prison. Tanber is in custody on $1 million bail and is scheduled for arraignment today, Sept. 14, 2015, in Department CJ-1, Central Jail, Santa Ana. The time is to be determined.
At the time of the crime the defendant is accused of being out of prison custody on parole after serving a previous 13-year sentence from a voluntary manslaughter conviction.
At approximately 12:15 a.m. on Sept. 8, 2015, Tanber is accused of exiting Patsy’s Irish Pub in Laguna Niguel. The defendant is accused of getting into a verbal argument with 22-year-old Shayan Mazroei near the exit of the bar. During the course of the argument, the defendant is accused of stabbing the victim multiple times in the upper portion of his torso. Tanber is accused of fleeing from the scene.
Witnesses at the scene called 911 and the victim was transported by paramedics to Mission Hospital, where he later died as a result of his injuries. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigated this case and arrested the defendant in a motel in Westminster on Sept. 11, 2015.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin of the Homicide Unit is prosecuting this case.