Two men have been arrested in connection with the 2019 death of an Irvine man whose body was found inside the trunk of a car parked on a street in Stanton, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department announced Friday.
The body of 31-year-old Jeffrey Cheng of Irvine was found in the trunk of a car parked in 12000 block of Leafwood Street on the morning of March 8, 2019.
Jonathan Ho, 32, and Nicholas Nguyen, 27, were arrested Thursday without incident after sheriff’s homicide investigators executed warrants at locations in Marina del Rey and Oklahoma City, the Sheriff’s Department reported.
Ho, a resident of Marina del Rey, was booked into the Orange County jail on suspicion of possession of metal knuckles and drug-related charges.
Nguyen, a resident of Oklahoma City, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder and is awaiting extradition, sheriff’s officials said.
During the arrests, investigators seized three firearms, approximately 1,000 fentanyl pills and 5,000 methamphetamine pills.
The motive for the crime and the relationship between the victim and the suspects are still under investigation.
In a tweet, Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said the arrests moved the case closer to giving justice to Cheng’s family and making the streets safer.