Local News in Brief : Newport Beach : Lawyer Says Defendant Was Victim’s Guest

The lawyer for a Hollywood man accused of murdering a Newport Beach ophthalmologist in January said in court Monday that his client was “an invited guest” in the doctor’s home. He sought to show that the pair were homosexually linked.

That argument was presented Monday by defense attorney Anthony C. Kies on the first day of a preliminary hearing for Allen J. Lindsey in Harbor Municipal Court in Newport Beach. Lindsey, 23, reportedly has told police that he killed Dr. Boonkird Chulapatrcheevin, 45, in self-defense after the doctor picked him up on a Hollywood street corner.

Chulapatrcheevin, a native of Thailand, was found dead of a stab wound Jan. 19 in his Balboa Peninsula duplex. Five days later, police arrested Lindsey in Hollywood on suspicion of murder after he was found driving the doctor’s Mercedes-Benz 560-SL convertible, which allegedly was stolen in the attack.

The only witness to appear at the opening day of Lindsey’s preliminary hearing was Pichaya Chulapatrcheevin, of Costa Mesa, the brother of the victim. He testified that he discovered the body when he went to see why his brother had failed to show up for work at his medical practice in Santa Ana.

The preliminary hearing is expected to last at least 3 days, after which Municipal Judge Glenn A. Mahler will decide whether there is sufficient evidence to order Lindsey to stand trial for murder.