A Southern California man was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, plus 30 years, for blowing up his ex-girlfriend’s spa with a package bomb in 2018, killing her and seriously injuring two others.
Stephen Beal, 64, was sentenced Friday to two concurrent life sentences, plus 30 years, in federal prison.
Friday’s hearing concluded the case against Beal, which has been riddled with missteps for investigators and prosecutors since the May 15, 2018, bombing at an Aliso Viejo spa about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Los Angeles.
‘Mr. Beal will never be able to go out and harm innocent victims again,” E. Martin Estrada, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, said at a news conference after the sentencing.
Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said Beal maintained his innocence during Friday’s hearing.
The FBI searches Stephen Beal’s Long Beach home on March 3, 2019, after taking him into custody in connection with a 2018 bombing at an Aliso Viejo beauty salon that killed his ex-girlfriend
Eva Boni, left, thanks investigators Jan. 19 in Los Angeles for their work to bring her cousin’s killer, Stephen Beal, to justice
A building after a fatal explosion in Aliso Viejo, California. Stephen Beal, who was arrested in connection with the 2018 bombing of his ex-girlfriend’s spa that killed her and seriously injured two others
“I couldn’t think of anything more insulting,” Barnes said at a post-conviction news conference.
Ildiko Krajnyak, 48, was killed in the fiery blast when she opened a box containing a homemade bomb 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 over. The explosion destroyed the business and tore a large chunk out of the building. Body parts were found in the parking lot.
“After five years of waiting and wondering, our family and friends are at peace knowing that Mr. Beal will spend the remaining days in prison,” Eva Boni, Krajnyak’s cousin, said at the news conference.
Beal, a partner in the firm, was jealous that Krajnyak was dating someone else after their 18-month relationship ended, prosecutors said.
“She was a shining light,” Nicole Barrett, her best friend, said at the news conference. “She was a wonderful person.”
E. Martin Estrada, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, discusses the sentencing of Stephen Beal, January 19, in Los Angeles
Beal was arrested shortly after the explosion on charges of possession of an unregistered destructive device, but was never officially named as a suspect in the explosion in the days that followed.
The charges were dropped after prosecutors questioned whether the material found in his Long Beach home was a “destructive device.” Beal claimed that the explosive material found at his home was for his model rockets.
He was free for almost ten months before being rearrested after a careful analysis of the evidence.
Beal’s first trial in 2022 ultimately ended in a mistrial after the federal jury deadlocked. He was tried again in 2023 and the second jury convicted him of four crimes, including use of a weapon of mass destruction causing death.
Beal was also found guilty of malicious destruction of a building causing death, use of a destructive device during and in connection with a violent crime, and possession of an unregistered destructive device.
“Our justice system can sometimes take a while,” Estrada said Friday. ‘The end result is what matters.’
Beal’s federal public defender, Craig Harbaugh, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Federal investigators said they discovered two improvised explosive devices, three firearms and more than 100 pounds of explosive material during a search Beal allowed of his home at the time of his arrest.
Prosecutors sought to drop charges after the FBI said it had questions about whether material found in the home met the legal definition of a “destructive device.”
Tape surrounds the home where Stephen Beal lived on May 16, 2018 in Long Beach. Beal was sentenced Friday to two concurrent life sentences, plus 30 years, in federal prison
Beal, a model rocket hobbyist, told investigators he had not made bombs and did not have material for an explosion as powerful as the one he saw in the news reports.
The father of four told authorities in 2018 that the explosives found at his home were part of his hobby of building rockets.
Krajnyak, 48, was killed and two female customers seriously injured when she opened a box that erupted in a fiery explosion at the spa in the city of Aliso Viejo, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Los Angeles, investigators said.
Beal and Krajnyak had recently parted ways over issues surrounding exclusivity and finances, he told investigators, according to an affidavit filed with the court by an FBI agent. But they remained business partners.
Krajnyak, a mother and certified cosmetologist, had just returned to California after visiting family in her native Hungary when she was killed in the blast.
Shocking surveillance footage released at the time revealed the extent of the destruction caused by the massive explosion.
The image shows an investigator inspecting the scene, where much of the ceiling appears to have collapsed, wires blown out of place and a hole punched in the wall.
Krajnyak’s 20-year-old son returned home from Washington State University after hearing the horrific news about his mother.
Stuart Davis, who lives a few doors down from Stephen Beal’s Long Beach home, said he often saw Beal and his adult son working on large rockets in their front yard. The son told Davis they were building movie props, he said.
Beal’s wife died mysteriously after falling down the stairs in a two-story house in a decent middle-class neighborhood.
Neighbor Don Westerhoff, 90, told The Orange County Register that Beal and his late wife Christine were moving a heavy piece of furniture down the stairs and Beal lost his grip.
She died in 2008, at the age of 48, according to coroner’s records, with the cause of death listed as “undetermined.”
Other causes were listed as ‘pancreatitis, electrolyte imbalance and other undetermined factors’.
‘Chronic lead intoxication’ was also mentioned in the report, and an autopsy described the death as mysterious but said there was no evidence of foul play.
The Orange County Register reported that Beal won a $500,000 settlement in 2010 from the American International Life Assurance Company of New York.
He said Christine died of traumatic pancreatitis after she fell while carrying a 29-pound side table.
An FBI agent wrote a note included in the 2018 lawsuit saying materials found in Beal’s home were “not consistent with those of a model rocket.”
Nathan Beal told The Associated Press that his father built sports rockets powered by a propellant legally available from specialty hobby stores. He thinks federal agents found “motorcycle trunks made of aluminum.”
He said it was “highly unlikely” that his father had pleaded guilty to any charges related to a destructive device.
The largest of the rockets used about five pounds of fuel in multiple engines.
The younger Beal also confirmed that Stephen had been in a relationship with the woman who died in the explosion, but that they recently broke up.
Beal’s Facebook page features many photos of him traveling with Krajnyak, a married mother of one from Coto de Caza, Orange County.
Krajnyak was a certified cosmetologist who ran the Magyar Kozmetika day spa from the first floor of the building.
Authorities say the explosion occurred on the same floor after a package was delivered.
One of the other women injured in the blast told federal investigators that the device was in one of several cardboard boxes on the floor, according to court documents.
When Krajnyak opened the box, it exploded. The victim said she remembers being thrown backwards to the ground and seeing smoke and flames.
A witness told investigators she saw “everything on fire” after the explosion.
Investigators said they found a nine-volt battery, a cell phone, melted material (presumably duct tape) and loose wires, according to court records.
The blast blew apart the walls, exposing insulation and window frames and shattering the windows of the two-story building.