New Details in Fatal Lake Forest Stabbings

After a wild brawl in which he allegedly stabbed and killed two Mission Viejo men last June, a battered slept with his girlfriend until 8 a.m., then browsed a local swap meet with her and her parents.

These and other new details were revealed at a preliminary court hearing held Wednesday morning in Santa Ana. After listening to testimony, Judge Eddie Thomas Keller ruled there was enough evidence for the to move forward.

Tombleson, a Lake Forest resident, is accused of  in the early hours of June 11 to mortally wound , and , in the parking lot of an all-night Mexican restaurant.

For Tombleson, the night began around 10:30 p.m. June 10 at , where he was socializing with his girlfriend and four other friends, according the lead detective on the case, Orange County Sheriff's Department homicide investigator Kimberly Milewski.

Sometime before 2 a.m., Tombleson's girlfriend and her two female friends drove to Rockfield Boulevard to visit the 24-hour eatery, , for a late-night snack. As the trio stood in line, a man later identified as Kechechian began to call Tombleson's girlfriend derogatory names as she spoke with her boyfriend on the phone, Milewski said.

The three women began arguing with Kechechian and another man—later identified as Kechechian's brother, Aris—who the women said were both acting angrily and agressively, the investigator said Wednesday. 

As the argument intensified, Aris Kechechian spat once on Tombleson's girlfriend, then twice at one of her friends. Other customers got involved and the incident turned into an all-out brawl, witnesses told Milewski.

After restaurant employees broke up the fight, a witness heard Tombleson's girlfriend ask him on the phone to come to her assistance, and within minutes saw him running up to her, then over to Kechechian's group—now standing in the parking lot near a red BMW.

Milewski testified that a witness saw Tombleson throw a punch at Aris Kechechian. In return, he was punched, knocked to the ground and kicked before making it back to his feet.

Tombleson's girlfriend told Milewski she left with her friends after seeing Tombleson return to a standing position.

It was then that the witness said Tombleson allegedly pulled a knife from the right-side pocket of his cargo shorts and stabbed Kechechian, then Saidian, using the same wide swinging motion to push the knife into their sides, one after another.

A witness said the knife hitting the men made a loud, noticeable thud, Milewski said.

Tombleson's girlfriend told Milewski in an interview soon after the stabbings that Tombleson returned that night to the house in Lake Forest where she was spending the night and that they slept until about 8 a.m. before heading north to meet her parents to browse a swap meet in Fountain Valley, her hometown.

Her boyfriend had a wound to his upper lip, scratches on his forehead and scuffed-up knees when he met her at a friend's residence in Lake Forest that night, the girlfriend told Milewski.

Tombleson's girlfriend said she didn't find out Tombleson had killed anyone until she saw news reports of two stabbings at Albatros and Tombleson told her he had done it, and was sorry.

Tombleson has , telling the court that he .

Public defender Huy Nguyen is defending Tombleson against the murder charges; Orange County Senior Deputy District Attorney Steve McGreevy is prosecuting.

Tombleson, who remains behind bars on $2-million bail, will next appear in court on Feb. 21.