Murder Charges Sought in Laguna Store Holdup

Police asked prosecutors Friday to file murder charges against a parolee authorities say killed the owner of a Laguna Beach ice cream parlor during a robbery in February.

Prosecutors who will review the case had no comment on whether they will charge Manuel Ramirez Rodriguez, a 25-year-old Corona resident arrested last weekend in Oregon.

Rodriguez has denied involvement in the Feb. 20 shooting, in which shop owner Simindokht Roshdieh, 53, was killed and her husband, Firooz, 63, was wounded. The couple were closing up their Baskin-Robbins store about 9:30 p.m. when the robbery occurred.

Friends and relatives of Rodriguez say he was 750 miles away in Oregon at the home of his girlfriend’s mother that night. Police said they were checking out the former Santa Ana gang member’s alibis.

“We have a lot of legwork to do,” Police Lt. Danell Adams said. “We’re sending people all over the place.”

Rodriguez also is accused of holding up a Tustin ice cream parlor the same evening, and robbing a music store and flower shop in Costa Mesa earlier in the day. Police in Riverside suspect him in three January holdups.

Rodriguez was being held at Orange County Jail on a parole violation since being extradited from Oregon this week.

Investigators had a photograph of the gunman taken from a surveillance tape during the Tustin robbery, but went weeks without a break.

Laguna Beach police decided to seek the charges after Rodriguez appeared Wednesday in a police lineup.