Trial Begins in Deadly Bar Stabbing in Laguna Niguel

LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA— Infuriated that a pool player at a Laguna Niguel bar spit on his girlfriend, an ex-con and member of a prominent Orange County white supremacist gang member jabbed a knife into the victim's heart, killing him on Labor Day weekend four years ago, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday.

Craig Matthew Tanber, a 41-year-old convicted killer, is charged with murder, with a knife-use sentencing enhancement, in the Sept. 6, 2015, stabbing death of 22-year-old Shayan Mazroei at Patsy's Irish Pub.

The victim was playing pool with friends at the bar when he stepped outside to smoke a cigarette and got into a conflict with Tanber's girlfriend, Elizabeth Anne Thornburg, said Senior Deputy District Attorney Mark Birney.

Thornburg shared "her views of Persians and of people from the Middle East" with Mazroei and also spit at him, according to Birney.

Mazroei "spit on her three or four times" as he walked back into the bar, prompting Thornburg to chase after him, the prosecutor said in his opening statement.

Mazroei appealed to bar security guard Mark Fillingham for help as an "upset and enraged" Thornburg chased him around the pool table, Birney said.

Fillingham told Thornburg to leave the bar as Tanber exited the bathroom, Birney said. Just after midnight, Fillingham told the couple "they're not coming back into the bar," he said, telling jurors that two bar patrons are expected to testify they saw Tanber "ranting" about "having a knife and wanting to stab someone."

A bartender summoned Fillingham for help with another issue, leaving Tanber unattended at the door, according to Birney, who said the defendant opened the door and yelled "`you!' as he motions to Shayan."

Mazroei "casually" walked over to the door and Tanber struck him "with a very strong left-hand punch to Shayan's face," then plunged a knife into the victim's heart and left shoulder blade, the prosecutor alleged.

Mazroei "stumbled" back into the bar and collapsed, Birney said. The victim was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Tanber ran away and deputies later found his windbreaker and the knife, Birney said.

Thornburg has been charged with being an accessory after the fact for allegedly picking up Tanber in the area and giving him a ride to her residence in Mission Viejo.

Tanber was free on parole at the time of the deadly conflict. He had been charged with murder in the April 4, 2004, beating death of 26-year-old Cory Lamons in Huntington Beach, but struck a plea bargain with prosecutors after a mistrial was declared when an alternate juror Googled one of the co- defendants and shared the information with other panelists.

Tanber pleaded guilty on Feb. 2, 2007, to voluntary manslaughter and admitted a sentencing enhancement for committing the crime to benefit a street gang, according to court records. He also pleaded guilty to dissuading a witness by force, street terrorism and assault with a deadly weapon or force likely to produce great bodily injury and was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Tanber's case generated headlines before his trial when his attorney, Alisha Montoro of the Orange County Public Defender's Office, alleged sheriff's deputies used two confidential informants to track down the defendant in a motel room and then directed one of the informants, the mother of Tanber's son, to inject him with heroin before his arrest and then wrongly questioned the "incoherent" suspect.

A motion to have the case dismissed on allegations of outrageous governmental misconduct was denied.

Montoro was expected to make her opening statement Wednesday afternoon.