PUBLIC SAFETY Man behind Wednesday’s bizarre attack...

PUBLIC SAFETY

Man behind Wednesday’s

bizarre attack arrested

Newport Beach police early Thursday 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.

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.

Detectives tracked Carpenter to the motel from a citation he had

dropped in the Back Bay while trying to escape. He was booked on

suspicion of attempted murder and arson.

* Masked robbers armed with large sledgehammers smashed the

display window of a Lido Isle jewelry store Thursday afternoon and

fled after bagging several diamond rings worth tens of thousands of

dollars, officials said.

Two or three people, their faces covered with ski masks, drove up

in a van in front of Jewelry by Mardo in the 3700 block of Via Oporto

at about 12:30 p.m. The robbers were confronted by the owner of the

store, who pulled out a gun and took a shot, but missed. No one was

hurt in the heist.

The intruders escaped in a getaway vehicle which police later

found abandoned about a half mile away. They made off with several

diamond rings, some in platinum settings. Police said the individual

diamonds were more then two carats in size.

* Police are looking for a Costa Mesa man in connection with the

murder of a 20-year-old Santa Ana man who was shot and killed in a

Westside alley a week ago.

Costa Mesa Police detectives are in the process of obtaining an

arrest warrant for Ismael Rosolio Martinez, 31, of Costa Mesa who is

believed to have gotten into an argument with Ferdinand Eugenio

Zamudio-Saucedo and fired the single bullet that killed him.

Police said the incident was not gang-related, but that they

consider Martinez to be armed and dangerous.

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.