Hotel occupant pleads not guilty to selling narcotics

Stephen Royds, the man whose arrest by Newport Beach police led detectives to a woman’s body stored in a bin of dry ice in the swanky Fairmont Newport Beach hotel, pleaded not guilty to two counts of possessing and selling narcotics Monday.

Police arrested Royds, 46, of New Zealand, last Thursday night for possessing and selling cocaine.

He was convicted of similar charges in 2002 when he skipped his sentencing and has been wanted on a warrant ever since.

If convicted, Royds faces up to 12 years in prison, prosecutor Dennis Conway said. His bail was set at $1 million.

Royds had been staying in the room for at least two years, Conway said. He does not know how long 33-year-old Monique Trepp, of Huntington Beach, had been staying in the room before police found her frozen body Saturday night.

Coroners said it did not appear to be homicide and are waiting results from a toxicology report.

— Joseph Serna