Attorneys to begin selection

Attorneys will likely begin selecting jurors this week in the trial of Weston Scott Kruger, who is accused of killing a Newport Beach liquor store owner in 2007 by shoving him to the ground while stealing a pornographic magazine.

Kruger, 31, a former Newport Harbor High School football player, is accused of murder with enhancements for allegedly committing the crime while out of custody on an armed robbery arrest earlier that year and a domestic violence charge in 2006.

Prosecutors are waiting for a courtroom at Santa Ana’s Central Justice Center to open so they can begin the proceedings, officials said Monday.

On July 28, 2007, Kruger left Cassidy’s Bar and Grill on Newport Boulevard and crossed the street to Sportsman Liquor Store to buy cigarettes, prosecutors said.

Hao “Tony” Quang Huynh, the store owner, was working behind the counter. Police testified during Kruger’s preliminary hearing that when Huynh moved to get the cigarettes, Kruger grabbed an adult magazine, stuffed it into his shorts and under his shirt.

Huynh confronted Kruger, who refused to pay for the magazine and left the store, police said.

Kruger is about 6-foot-5, and weighed between 270 and 280 pounds. Huynh was about 5-foot-3 and weighed about 110 pounds.

Huynh followed him out with a phone in one hand, threatening to call police when Kruger turned, rushed Huynh and violently shoved him to the ground, police testified.

The back of Huyn’s skull slammed into the concrete, causing a 5- to 6-inch crack. Police testified that Kruger fled the scene and hung out at the beach, a short distance away, until a friend came and picked him up. Huynh succumbed to his injuries a day later.

Because Kruger was allegedly stealing a magazine, he faces a sentencing enhancement of murder during a robbery, which would give him life without parole if convicted on all charges. In his two other cases, Kruger is accused of robbing an acquaintance’s home at gunpoint and beating his girlfriend over the back with a metal pole and shoving her face into a bowl of dog food in 2006.

Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy is prosecuting the case. Murphy successfully prosecuted serial-killer Rodney Alcala, who killed a Huntington Beach girl, among others; Skylar Deleon, who killed two Newport Beach retirees; and Joshua Blount, who was the gunman in a fatal drive-by shooting in Costa Mesa in 2006.