A Long Beach man awaiting sentencing for sending a homemade bomb to an Aliso Viejo day spa that killed his ex-girlfriend when she opened the package agreed this week to plead guilty to fraud charges in a separate federal case.
Stephen William Beal, 64, was scheduled to plead guilty to charges of wire fraud, Social Security fraud and concealment of bankruptcy assets on Thursday, Nov. 9, according to court documents.
In a filed plea agreement signed by Beal on Oct. 16, Beal admitted he failed to report in bankruptcy proceedings that he had received $350,000 from his late wife’s estate after filing a lawsuit against Marsh McLennan on an accidental death policy. He filed for bankruptcy in October 2009 and received the benefits by April 2011, prosecutors said.
Beal also admitted to receiving $1 million in fraudulent disability payments from an insurance company after lying about having a disability that kept him from working and enjoying hobbies, including his “high-powered rocketry,” court documents show. And he admitted he lied about having a disability when he applied for and received $350,000 in Social Security benefits during the same time period.
He said he couldn’t work because he suffered from aphasia, difficulty communicating, memory loss and an inability to read, according to the plea agreement.
Beal’s wife, Christine Beal, died in 2008 when she was 48, according to Los Angeles County coroner’s records. Her cause of death was “undetermined,” but the report noted she suffered from “pancreatitis, electrolyte imbalance” and “chronic lead intoxication.”
In a 2010 filing related to Beal’s lawsuit against the insurance company, he claimed his wife died from traumatic pancreatitis and that she fell down a flight of stairs while carrying a 49-pound end table.
A trial on the fraud charges was scheduled for Nov. 14, according to court records.
Beal, in July, was convicted by jury in federal court of using a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death and other explosives-related charges related to the death of his ex-girlfriend, 48-year-old Ildiko Krajnyak on May 15, 2018.
The trial was the second in the case after the first ended in a mistrial, with jurors split 9 to 3 in favor of guilt.
Beal crafted a homemade bomb and dropped it off at Krajnyak’s Aliso Viejo day spa, Magyar Kozmetika, in a cardboard box to look like a package. The bomb exploded upon opening, killing Krajnyak and injuring two other women who were in the spa and leaving debris and body parts strewn across the business park near Oso and Moulton Parkways.
Prosecutors said Beal and Krajnyak met online and had a “tumultuous dating relationship,” and had become co-owners of the spa. After their breakup, Beal had learned shortly before the bombing that Krajnyak had traveled to Hungary with another man.
Beal quickly became the prime suspect, someone both investigators and prosecutors said had the means, motive and opportunity to carry out the bombing.
Beal’s attorney, Meghan Blanco, argued during trial that the FBI had “tunnel vision” during the investigation, latching on to Beal quickly. She argued that because of Beal’s experience experimenting with homemade rockets, it defied common sense for him to choose an explosive as a murder weapon.
Beal is scheduled to be sentenced in Krajnyak’s death on Jan. 19.
