Suspect in invasion and arson caught
Deepa Bharath
Newport Beach police early Thursday morning arrested a 41-year-old
handyman accused of gagging and binding the woman he worked for and
setting her house on fire Wednesday, officials said.
After about 16 hours of scouring the bluffs and the Back Bay
behind the home on Galaxy Drive where the incident occurred, police
caught Kevin Duane Carpenter in a Costa Mesa motel in the 2200 block
of Newport Boulevard.
Officials said he had lived there for the last two months.
On Wednesday, a man identified as Carpenter bound the woman living
in the home and her female assistant and hit them both on the head,
police said. The women told police that the assailant had a handgun.
The assailant then lighted several fires throughout the home,
causing a large portion of it to burn and collapse, officials said.
Both women escaped uninjured from the burning home.
SWAT team members and firefighters spent several hours Wednesday
trying to clear the debris and enter the home to search for
Carpenter. They continued into the night, shining lights into the
Back Bay.
Detectives recovered several pieces of evidence, including a
modified handgun and a recent traffic citation handed out to
Carpenter that led police to the Costa Mesa motel, which was listed
as his last known address, Newport Beach Police Sgt. Steve Shulman
said.
“The gun and the citation were found close to each other, which
led us to believe it belonged to him,” he said.
Two Newport Beach police officers staked out Carpenter’s motel
room. At about 4:20 a.m. Thursday, Carpenter used a motel house phone
to call the manager and request a duplicate key for his room, Shulman
said.
“The manager began to walk [Carpenter] to his room when he ran to
the parking area of the motel with the officers in pursuit,” he said.
Carpenter stopped when the officers ordered him to stop and was
taken into custody without incident, Shulman said.
He said Carpenter was “extremely dirty, wet and had cactus
stickers and burrs all over him,” indicating he had escaped
immediately after the incident by scaling down a steep cliff and
hiding in the Back Bay area behind the Galaxy Drive home.
Carpenter was booked on suspicion of attempted murder and arson.
He is being held in Newport Beach city jail without bail and is
expected to be arraigned today or Monday.
This is not the first incidence of violence on Galaxy Drive this
year. On June 10, an 85-year-old woman on the same street was
attacked and robbed by a man right after she pulled into her garage.
Neighbors in the Dover Shores area said they were “relieved” to
learn about Carpenter’s arrest.
Kingsley Echlin said she would continue to feel safe in her
neighborhood, but would take precautions in the future.
“I’ll make sure and lock all the doors,” she said. “And I’ll think
twice about who I hire to work for me.”
Ann and Bob French, who live next door to the victim, said they
spent an uncomfortable night wondering where Carpenter may have been.
“It was kind of scary,” Ann French said. “I’m relieved for sure.”
She said she had seen Carpenter several times at work next door.
But, French added, she didn’t know her neighbor too well.
“I said hello to her a few times,” French said. “She seemed very
nice.”
During Thursday, several people stopped by the corner to look at
the burned house. The hole that firefighters had made to get into the
residence Wednesday afternoon still remained. Yellow police tape was
tied around the perimeter.
For one passerby, the scene was particularly painful.
Patty Culpepper had tears in her eyes as she looked at the house
she had lived in for almost seven years.
“My family and I have had so many memories in this house,” she
said. “We’ve had family reunions, holidays. My husband died in this
house.”
Culpepper lovingly talked about the house’s distinctive blue roof
and the color of the iron gates that matched the roof.
“I’d drive by here at least once a month just for the memories,”
she said, choking up. “This is horrible.”
Culpepper said she and her family lived at the home from 1994 to
2001 when she sold the house. She now lives on Balboa Island.
“This area has always been crime-prone because it’s easily
accessible from Irvine Avenue,” she said. “We’ve had a few robberies
and burglaries in this neighborhood. But a violent incident like this
one? I’d have to say, never.”
* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be
reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.