Police name victim found dead in home

Marisa O’Neil

Police on Thursday identified a man who was shot and killed Wednesday

in his home near South Coast Plaza as 69-year-old Arthur Lee Hayes.

Hayes’ stepson, 50-year-old Dennis Thomas, is scheduled to appear

in Harbor Court on murder charges today. He is being held in lieu of

$1 million bail at the city jail.

Thomas surrendered himself to Orange County sheriff’s deputies

Wednesday afternoon, shortly after an anonymous caller asked police

to check on the welfare of a resident in the 900 block of Jasmine

Circle, Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Marty Carver said.

When they forced their way into the home, police found a man later

identified as Hayes dead of an apparent gunshot wound.

An attorney for Thomas called Costa Mesa police Wednesday

afternoon to notify them of the surrender. Police then arrested

Thomas on suspicion of his stepfather’s murder.

Thomas had been living in the home with Hayes, Carver said.

The single-family home sits at the end of a cul-de-sac in a quiet

neighborhood near South Coast Plaza.

Neighbors in the area said they knew little of the family living

in the home.

There appeared to be three generations living in the home, one

said.

More children and grandchildren would come to visit them on

holidays and play at the end of the street.

The family was quiet and kept to themselves, neighbors said.

Costa Mesa had two domestic homicides last year. Both were ruled

murder-suicides and took place in similarly well-kept neighborhoods.

In May, 70-year-old Norman Hansen shot his 43-year-old son David

Hansen and then himself in their Mesa North home. Norman Hansen later

died of his injuries. In October, Theodore Cheron, 84, shot and

killed his daughter-in-law, 37-year-old Lilia Cheron, in their

Eastside Costa Mesa Home and then shot himself in the head. He died

two weeks later.