Man gets life plus 30 years in spa bombing

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California man was sentenced Friday to two concurrent life sentences, plus 30 years, for blowing up his ex-girlfriend’s spa business with a package bomb in 2018, killing her and seriously injuring two others.

Friday’s hearing concluded a case against Stephen Beal, 64, that was fraught with missteps for investigators and prosecutors since the May 15, 2018 bombing in an Aliso Viejo spa.

Ildiko Krajnyak, 48, was killed in the fiery blast when she opened a box with a homemade bomb inside that Beal had slipped into the spa while she was in Hungary visiting family. Two clients she had just treated — a mother and daughter — were knocked off their feet. The blast destroyed the business and tore a large hunk from the building. Body parts were found in the parking lot.

“Mr. Beal will never be able to get out to harm innocent victims again,” said E. Martin Estrada, the US Attorney for the Central District of California, at a news conference after the sentencing.

A federal judge sentenced Beal to two concurrent life sentences for the charges of use of a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death and malicious destruction of a building resulting in death.

Beal also received a 30-year sentence for the use of a destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence, which will run consecutively, and a 10-year concurrent sentence for possession of an unregistered destructive device.

Beal’s federal public defender, Craig Harbaugh, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.