Lake Forest man gets 30 years for fatal parking lot stabbings

An Orange County man was sentenced Friday to 30 years and four months in state prison for fatally stabbing two men during a fight outside a Lake Forest restaurant , prosecutors said.

Justin Alvin Masao Tombleson, 30, was found guilty by a jury in May of two felony counts of voluntary manslaughter, according to a statement from the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Tombleson, a resident of Lake Forest, had two prior convictions: battery with serious bodily injury and assault with a deadly weapon, both from 2005.

Prosecutors said that in the early morning hours of June 11, 2011, Tombleson went to a Mexican restaurant in Lake Forest after getting a call from his girlfriend, who had gotten into an argument with another group in the restaurant. During the argument, a man had spit on her.

Both groups in the argument had been told to leave the restaurant and were in the parking lot when Tombleson arrived.

A fight broke out in the parking lot, and Tombleson pulled a knife from his pocket. He stabbed Elvis Kechecian, 26, once in the abdomen, perforating his aorta, and stabbed Hossein Saidian, 32, in the chest and arm. Both were taken to a local hospital.

Kechechian was pronounced dead shortly after arriving; Saidian was in critical condition for days before he died.

Tombleson fled the scene. Sheriff’s investigators found a knife at the scene and linked him to the knife through DNA evidence. The DNA of both victims was also on the knife, according to prosecutors.

At Friday’s sentencing, prosecutors said family members and friends offered victim impact statements, including Saidian’s girlfriend.

“The day that Hossein died,” Anna Villar told the court, “I died as well.”

ALSO:

3rd person in Asiana plane crash has died, hospital says

Asiana: Bay Area TV station apologizes for racist pilot names

Gov. Brown ordered to respond to latest bid to halt gay weddings

Twitter: @rar

rick.rojas@latimes.com