Man, 40, Is Arrested in Slaying
A 40-year-old Westminster man was being held Sunday on suspicion of murder for allegedly slashing a Santa Ana man in the throat with a box cutter after the two apparently got into an argument on a residential street, Westminster police said.
Donald C. Stephens was being held in the Orange County Jail pending arraignment Wednesday at the Justice Center in Santa Ana.
The victim, whose name was not released pending notification of family members, was transported to UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange, where he was pronounced dead, Westminster Police Lt. Mike Schliskey said.
A woman called police on a cell phone Saturday about 9:30 p.m. to report hearing screams from a man in front of her home in the 7400 block of Main Street, Schliskey said.
The woman and other neighbors told police they went out to investigate and saw a man lying on the sidewalk in a pool of blood, Schliskey said.
Witnesses reported seeing another man running from the scene toward Hoover Street. Huntington Beach police and a Sheriff’s Department helicopter joined the search and found the suspect hiding in a drainage ditch alongside railroad tracks about a mile from the slaying, Schliskey said.
Police are investigating the incident.
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