3 Men, 3 Teens Arrested in Death of Tustin Man, 39

Police on Thursday arrested three juveniles and three men in connection with the beating death of a Tustin resident who apparently took drugs from a street gang.

The suspects, ages 14 to 29, were arrested at their homes in Tustin and Santa Ana between 7 and 8 a.m. on suspicion of murder, police said.

Police said they are seeking arrest warrants for others in the death of Scott Mundt, 39, who was punched, kicked and struck repeatedly with a baseball bat Nov. 29 outside his apartment in the 15700 block of Tustin Village Way.

“We think there’s a possibility that Mundt . . . came across a small cache of drugs, possibly by accident,” Lt. Frank Semelsberger said. “He took those drugs and either used them himself or passed them on.”

The suspects confronted him, and demanded the drugs or money back, Semelsberger said. For whatever reasons, they got neither, and that’s what prompted the attack, he said.

Unable to recover their losses, the suspects broke into Mundt’s apartment and took some belongings after the beating, Semelsberger said.

Paramedics arrived to find Mundt unconscious and took him to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where he died two days later, according to a coroner’s report.

Interviews with witnesses and further investigation led police to obtain warrants to search for Mundt’s belongings at the homes of six alleged gang members, Semelsberger said. Police said they found some of Mundt’s belongings while serving the warrants.

Police arrested Rene P. Rodriguez, 21, of Tustin; Oscar Rico, 19, of Santa Ana; James A. Askew, 29, of Tustin, and three juveniles ages 14 to 17 from Santa Ana and Tustin.

The men were being held at Orange County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail each and the teen-agers were taken to Orange County Juvenile Hall.