Stephen Beal was sentenced life in prison after being convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend by sending a bomb at her spa in Orange County. Ted Chen reports for the NBC4 News on Jan. 19, 2024.
A Long Beach man convicted in a bombing at an Aliso Viejo day spa that killed a woman he dated was sentenced Friday to life in prison.
Stephen Beal, 64, faced a potential life term in federal prison, and a mandatory minimum of 30 years, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. He was sentenced to two concurrent life sentences, plus 30 years.
In July, Beal was convicted in the May 2018 attack in which a homemade bomb exploded at the Magyar Kozmetica day spa in Aliso Viejo, killing 48-year-old Ildiko Krajnyak, who co-owned the business with Beal. The bombing was part of a revenge plot after Krajnyak rejected Beal and dated other men, prosecutors said.
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“Mr. Beal will never be able to get out to harm innocent victims again,” said E. Martin Estrada, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, at a news conference after the sentencing.
Krajnyak was killed when she opened a cardboard box near the spa's front desk. The explosive device was triggered, resulting in a powerful blast the destroyed the building and seriously injured two other people.
Kranjyak, a mother and cosmetologist, had just returned to California after visiting family in her native Hungary. She was killed instantly and the explosion was so powerful human remains were found outside the building, authorities said.
Beal contacted law enforcement that day and told investigators he and Kranjyak were business partners and had recently ended a romantic relationship, according to an affidavit filed by an FBI agent.
Beal was arrested in March 2019 after an examination of pieces of wire found at the spa scene that matched wire discovered at his home. He was seen on security camera video a week before the bombing buying the type of battery used in the explosive device, authorities said.
Defense attorneys argued that their client was a rocket hobbyist. The wires and other materials had no connection to the bomb, they said.
Beal was initially arrested shortly after the explosion on a charge of possessing an unregistered destructive device, but was not immediately named a suspect in the blast. The charge was dropped after prosecutors questioned whether material found at his Long Beach home constituted a “destructive device.”
Beal was free for nearly 10 months before being re-arrested following the analysis of the evidence.
Beal's first trial in 2022 ultimately ended in a mistrial after the federal jury deadlocked. He was retried in 2023 and the second jury convicted him of four felonies including the use of a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death.
Beal also was found guilty of malicious destruction of a building resulting in death, use of a destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence, and possession of an unregistered destructive device.
