A 22-year-old man booked on suspicion of killing a transient in Newport Beach had only been released from jail about three weeks before the incident, having just agreed to a plea deal — over the objections of prosecutors — in an unrelated knife attack, according to court records obtained Tuesday.
Ezekial Izaiah Person, who listed his occupation as security guard, was being held without bail for his suspected involvement in Saturday’s killing of 59-year-old Ruben Gonzalez shortly after midnight near the Newport Pier, according to jail records.
Police said Gonzalez got into some sort of an altercation with Person, and Gonzalez was pronounced dead at the scene.
As of Tuesday, Person was scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday, but court records did not indicate specific charges.
Previously, only weeks prior to the incident in Newport Beach, Person pleaded guilty Sept. 23 to a felony count of assault with a deadly weapon as well as misdemeanor counts of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury and driving without a valid driver’s license. As part of the plea deal extended by Orange County Superior Court Judge Gassia Apkarian, a sentencing enhancement for inflicting great bodily injury on the victim was dismissed.
After he pleaded guilty in the Anaheim knife attack case, Person was sentenced to 168 days in jail, or time he had already served in the case, and was immediately released from custody. He was also placed on two years of formal probation and ordered to complete a 10-week anger management program.
Co-defendant Joshua Harris pleaded guilty Sept. 24 for the Aug. 18, 2020, attack in Anaheim to attempted murder with a sentencing enhancement for inflicting great bodily injury on the victim and was sentenced to a year in jail.
Person and Harris were charged in connection with a melee involving multiple combatants that culminated in a man getting stabbed and requiring hospitalization. Four suspects were arrested, but only Person and Harris were charged.
When Person accepted his plea deal he also cleared up pending cases for drug possession and misdemeanor counts of assault and battery for an Oct. 14, 2020, attack in unincorporated Orange and a misdemeanor case in Tustin on Jan. 29, 2020, of loitering on private property, unlawful tampering with a vehicle and resisting arrest, according to court records.