CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / SANTA ANA
Two bar patrons who fatally stabbed a bouncer and injured another customer during a New Year’s Eve altercation in Aliso Viejo two years ago were sentenced Friday to decades -- and possibly life -- in prison.
Lorne Paul Kelley, 28, of Big Bear faces 71 years to life in prison. Ricky Lee Nelson, 29, of Hesperia was sentenced to 32 years to life in prison.
The men were drinking with friends at Time Out Tavern early New Year’s Day 2007 when Nelson, an Army veteran, made disparaging comments about Marines. Some bouncers and bar-goers who were U.S. Marines told Nelson and his friends to leave.
Angered, Nelson and Kelley shouted at bouncers from the parking lot and tried to pick a fight. As Kelley took a knife from his car trunk, Nelson yelled and tried to punch a Marine as he left the bar with his wife. After more bouncers arrived to break up the scuffle outside, Kelley stabbed Brandon White, 21, in the neck and Stephen Cirillo, 21, in the neck and chest. White later died.
-- Susannah Rosenblatt
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