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Police arrested a man this morning at a motel on suspicion of stabbing a man to death outside a Laguna Niguel bar. His background reveals involvement with a white supremacist gang and a conviction for manslaughter.Craig Tanber, a 37-year-old Dana Point man, was arrested early this morning by Orange County Sheriff's Department SWAT at a Motel 6 in Westminster, the OC Register reports. He is currently being held on a $1 million bail and will appear again in court next week. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
Tanber is accused of stabbing 22-year-old Shayan Mazroei to death outside of Patsy's Irish Pub in Laguna Niguel just after midnight on Monday. Mazroei was pronounced dead a half an hour after the attack at Mission Hospital. Tanber allegedly fled the scene after the attack and had been missing until his arrest this morning. When SWAT found him, he was with a woman, though investigators don't think it's the same woman he was with the night of the attack.
This is not the first time Tanber, who has openly admitted to being a white supremacist, has been accused of murder. He was arrested in 2004 on suspicion of murdering 26-year-old Corey Lamons. Lamons was found dead in the bed of a pick-up truck, beaten to death with a claw hammer, when police pulled over the Public Enemy Number 1 (PEN1) gang members. PEN1 was a white supremacist gang influenced by punk that was involved with selling and using meth. Investigators learned that Lamons was murdered because he allegedly stole money from a woman who had dated a gang member.
Tanber was one of nine people accused in Lamons' murder, but his first trial ended in a mistrial after it was discovered a juror had investigated the case online on their own, something that's considered a violation. Tanber ultimatelyagreed to a plea deal in 2007 that landed him six years in prison for voluntary manslaughter. He was released on June 13. He previously got two years in prison after pleading guilty in 2001 to first-degree burglary.
Though Mazroei was Iranian, and despite Tanber's background, the murder is not being investigated as a hate crime yet.
