Police name 1 suspect in 2006 jewelery heist

Costa Mesa police on Wednesday said they have found one of two men who pepper-sprayed a Tiffany & Co. security guard while 20 customers looked on, then smashed a display case and ran off with more than $100,000 in jewelry in a dramatic crime last February at South Coast Plaza. Yet the man accused already sits in prison, convicted of an unrelated charge in December.

Citing DNA evidence found at the scene, Costa Mesa police obtained an arrest warrant for Emerson Paul, 20, of Los Angeles on suspicion of second-degree robbery. According to a news release, police said they sent evidence to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department crime lab and were told of a match in October, and obtained the warrant Wednesday.

The other suspect is still outstanding, and police have not recovered the jewelry, according to Costa Mesa police.

Paul was arrested on March 23 of last year by the Los Angeles Police Department, according to Los Angeles County Jail records. Paul was taken to a state prison in Lancaster on Jan. 10, 2007.

On Feb. 8, 2006, two men entered the jeweler through the mall entrance at 7:30 p.m., 90 minutes before closing. They immediately sprayed the guard standing by the door, and one man smashed a jewelry case with a hammer. He grabbed a sapphire-and-diamond necklace worth $89,000 and earrings worth $22,500, and both ran out the doors.

Police searched for the men by car and by helicopter but did not find them.