Date’s Ex-Boyfriend Held : Marine, 20, Is Slain in Laguna Stabbing

A 20-year-old Marine was stabbed to death outside a Laguna Beach motel Monday night, and his teen-age date’s former boyfriend has been booked on suspicion of murder, police said.

Monroe Kevin Cook, a rifleman stationed at Camp Pendleton, died at Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo about half an hour after being stabbed four times with a lare hunting knife.

Three hours after the 8:30 p.m. assault, officers arrested Gene Frederick Hinman, 18, at his room at the Tides Motel on North Coast Highway, Laguna Beach police said. Hinman was booked into the Laguna Beach City Jail on suspicion of murder and was being held on $250,000 bail.

Police said Cook and the 16-year-old girl had gone to the motel Monday night, where an argument erupted after they told Hinman that she was breaking off their romance. After the argument, as Cook and the girl walked away, Cook was attacked with a hunting knife, police said. The girl, who lives in Mission Viejo, was not harmed.

Police Lt. Jim White said Cook was stabbed three times in the back and once in the chest. Cook’s aortic artery was punctured by at least one stab wound, and an autopsy Tuesday showed that he bled to death.

Cook is originally from Mansfield, Mo., Sgt. N. H. North, a Camp Pendleton spokesman, said Tuesday. He enlisted in the Marines in October, 1983.

Hinman, an occasional laborer and longtime resident of Laguna Beach, was arrested after another motel guest told police he was there.

Police said Hinman was carrying the knife allegedly used to kill Cook.