El Toro Boy Held as Suspect in Attack on Newspaper Carrier

A 16-year-old El Toro boy, dressed in black and wielding a metal baseball bat, was arrested early Sunday morning on suspicion of attempted murder in a brutal attack last month on a newspaper carrier, authorities said Sunday.

Two sheriff’s deputies arrested the youth on suspicion of attempted robbery as he ran down an El Toro street. They later linked the young suspect to the Dec. 11 attack on Catherine Hunter, 23, of Santa Ana, Lt. Dick Olson, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department, said Sunday.

Deputies William Tressler and Steve Ripple were on routine patrol shortly after 3 a.m. Sunday, when they saw the suspect race past them as a report of an attempted robbery at a nearby doughnut store was broadcast over their radio, Olson said. The boy, whose name was withheld because of his age, was wearing a black ski mask and black clothing, and carried a bat and a toy handgun.

The suspect’s description in the robbery attempt on DK’s Donuts in the 2400 block of Muirlands Boulevard fit the running boy, so the deputies arrested him, Olson said.

As he was taken into custody, Tressler and Ripple realized that he also matched the description of the suspect who attacked Hunter last December, breaking her jaw and arm, fracturing her skull and severely damaging one eye, Olson said.

Hunter’s assailant in the December attack was dressed in black and wore a black “pull-down” cap, and Hunter was beaten with a metal object similar to a bat, Olson said.

Struck on the Head

Deputies took the youthful suspect to the sheriff’s substation in Laguna Niguel, where they called in the detective investigating Hunter’s attack.

After the suspect was questioned by deputies and investigators, he was booked on suspicion of attempted murder in connection with the attack on Hunter and on suspicion of attempted robbery in connection with the incident at the doughnut shop, Olson said. There were no injuries in the robbery attempt, he said, and no money was taken.

In the December assault, Hunter was struck on the head by a metal object and critically injured as she stepped out of her USA Today delivery truck outside an El Toro delicatessen at 1:45 a.m. on a Thursday morning. At the time, investigators said there seemed to be no motive for the crime.

Hunter did not appear to know her attacker, and her purse--with money inside--was found in her idling truck, which was stopped at a curb, where she was about to load newspapers into street racks, officials said at the time. She was not sexually assaulted, Olson said Sunday.

The woman has been released from Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo, where she was taken in critical condition after the attack, but she must still undergo extensive surgery, Olson said.

“She was really severely beaten,” Olson said. “They didn’t expect her to live.”

Neither Hunter, her employers or workers at the doughnut shop could be reached for comment Sunday.