Slaying Suspect Contends He Was in Oregon : Courts: A Corona man named as a suspect in the killing of a Laguna Beach ice cream parlor owner pleads not guilty to a same-day heist in Tustin.

A Corona man suspected of killing a Laguna Beach ice cream shop owner during a robbery in February pleaded not guilty Friday to a separate armed robbery in Tustin earlier the same evening.

Laguna Beach police named Manuel Ramirez Rodriguez, 25, two weeks ago as the prime suspect in the fatal Feb. 20 shooting. But authorities still are investigating and have not decided yet whether to charge him with murder, a prosecutor said Friday. Authorities said some witnesses picked Rodriguez as the gunman during a police lineup.

Rodriguez and friends insist he was in Oregon on the day of the robberies. His attorney, charging that Rodriguez is a victim of mistaken identity, said defense investigators hope to get evidence by Monday proving his client’s alibi. The lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Ronald Klar, declined to elaborate.

“It’s absolutely a matter of misidentification. This is the wrong person,” Klar said after Rodriguez’s arraignment in Municipal Court in Santa Ana. Klar said there are at least 15 people who say Rodriguez was in Oregon that day.

Klar said half a dozen witnesses to the robberies in Laguna Beach and Tustin were unable to identify Rodriguez.

Prosecutors said it was unclear how long the murder investigation would take.

“There is both physical evidence, eyewitness evidence and allegations of an alibi which are all being thoroughly investigated,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregg Prickett said. “Their investigation isn’t completed yet.”

Police named Rodriguez as the suspect in the two ice cream shop holdups, as well as two armed robberies in Costa Mesa earlier the same day. Rodriguez also is a suspect in several robberies in Riverside and Los Angeles counties.

Shop owner Simindokht Roshdieh, 53, was shot dead and her husband, Firooz, 63, was wounded during the Laguna Beach heist, which took place as the couple were closing the Broadway shop about 9:30 p.m.

Witnesses described a tattooed man with a teardrop marking under his eye. Rodriguez has tattoos on his arms and neck but not a teardrop tattoo, prompting police to speculate he may have worn a fake marking during the holdups. Police said Rodriguez had sought to alter his appearance by plucking his eyebrows, shaving his mustache and gaining weight before his arrest on a parole violation.

Rodriguez, a former Santa Ana gang member, was arrested March 26 in Chiloquin, Ore., where he was staying with his girlfriend’s family. Family members said he and girlfriend Janet Samson drove to Oregon with their child five days before the robberies and never left.