Good Guy with a Gun #167: Newport Beach, CA
Come for the home invasion story. Stick around for the Chinese conspiracy theory. | Original incident: April 16, 2024
These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. Today’s post is very substantially updated from the calendar version.
I’ll be honest, I originally thought this story was just “rich people getting robbed.” But it’s a heck of a lot more intriguing than that.
It got a lot of coverage, probably because it happened in a tony community in Newport Beach, California, that had expensive homes and a gate and a guard. But there are a lot of little pieces to put together.
Let’s start with the home invasion itself.
Just before 5 AM, 24-year-old Andrew Miguel Rosas and another man invaded a rental property on Vista Luci. This is not a motel: It rents for $35,000 per month, boasts 4,709 square feet, and has beautiful views of the coastline. I’ve heard estimates of its value that range from five to seven million dollars.
I know, I know: the price of everything and the value of nothing. But it helps us understand the target of the invaders’ ambitions.
Moreover, the invaders knew the people who lived there, though we don’t know what the relationship was. The renters were Chinese nationals,1 and four people were home at the time — a man,2 two women, and a child.
The invaders brought zip ties and rope. They took a phone away from one of the victims to prevent them from calling for help.
But they weren’t able to take the man’s rifle away. Rosas was shot multiple times. He stumbled out to the street, where the police found him lying down and holding his handgun. The other invader ran, hid in some bushes — and committed suicide with a bullet to the head.
I don’t know about you, but that seems a little weird to me.
None of the people in the home were hurt. When they called the police, they not only got cars, but SWAT and a helicopter.
(…but they wouldn’t have been able to call the cops if they hadn’t had a rifle. Just saying. This is still a Good Guy with a Gun story.)
Rosas was taken to the hospital for an extended stay. Newport Police initially wouldn’t give a motive, and then they said that the invaders hadn’t necessarily been trying to rob the house. However, by the time he appeared in court, Rosas had been charged with first-degree burglary, first-degree robbery, carrying a loaded firearm in public and conspiring to commit a crime. But hold that thought.
Specifically, Patch tells us “he was accused of conspiring with Gao Ming to commit the robbery, according to the criminal complaint.” Is Gao Ming the dead guy? Not clear: Just two paragraphs later, Patch mentions that the police aren’t mentioning the dead guy’s name yet — and I see nothing else about him in the months that followed. But I suspect that it is, and here’s why:
When we fast-forward to December, 2024, Rosas and two others pleaded guilty to charges related to this crime. Quoting MyNewsLA.com:
Andrew Miguel Rosas, 25, pleaded guilty to burglary, kidnapping for ransom-extortion or to commit a robbery, attempted robbery, possession of a gun by a felon and conspiracy, all felonies, with sentencing enhancements for being armed with a gun in the commission of a felony. Rosas was sentenced to six years in prison.
Co-defendant Jose Guadalupe Hernandez, 42, pleaded guilty to burglary, kidnapping for ransom-extortion or to commit a robbery, attempted robbery in a house and conspiracy, all felonies, with sentencing enhancements for being armed with a gun. Hernandez was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Bernadette Cortez pleaded guilty to the same charges as Hernandez and was sentenced to six years in prison.
First, note that Rosas, Hernandez, and Cortez were all charged with kidnapping for ransom — this was no ordinary robbery.
Then note that the three people who were alive to plead had Hispanic names, but there’s no Gao Ming.
So a man with a very common Chinese name is mentioned as a conspirator in court documents; the people in the home are Chinese nationals; one of the people who failed to kidnap the victims took his own life. Who was he? What was he afraid of?
Now I want to know more about the Chinese nationals who rented the house. But of course they’re the victims, so there’s nothing about them in the usual places.
Finally, the Orange County Register notes:
The three defendants agreed to the offers from a judge over the objections of prosecutors, court records show.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office is “presently reviewing the judge’s decision to make those offers, and we will be evaluating our legal options,” spokeswoman Kimberly Edds said.
That last bit can be chalked up to the capriciousness of judges — but on top of everything else, I have to wonder. Maybe I watch too many conspiracy TV shows. Or maybe there really was something weird going on.
Let’s wrap up with something a little more mundane: A tweet from then-Mayor of Newport Beach, Will O’Neill.
In case Substack stops working with X again, here’s what he says:
I have a message for those who would come to our City to commit crime. We will defend ourselves.
In the embedded video, he adds, “…and today is an example of that.”
Sources
There are too many sources for this story to mention. I’ll link (in some cases re-link) some of the sources that gave key details for this story that I used for my reconstruction (and conspiracy theory).
The Orange County Register did a great job overall, so that’s the source to stick with if you’re just sticking with one.
Newport Coast resident shoots home invasion suspect, April 16, updated April 22
24-year-old man charged in Newport Coast home invasion, April 16, updated April 20
Man shot by Newport Coast resident during apparent home robbery attempt appears in court, April 29, updated April 30
Violent Newport Coast home invasion leads to prison terms for 2 men, 1 woman, December 3, updated December 5 — note that this is the primary source for the prosecutors’ opposition to the plea bargains for the three living conspirators.
The Daily Mail claimed to have some sources that gave them details that weren’t given elsewhere:
the renters being Chinese nationals
a reference to a Fox11 article or broadcast that I can’t find in which the police said that it might not have been a robbery
confirmation from unnamed local sources that it was a kidnapping attempt
…and of course they have dazzling pictures that it would be unethical to steal, but don’t think I wasn’t tempted.
Stu News Newport mentioned that a source told them that the man with the rifle was there specifically to protect the people in the house.
Patch is the only source to mention conspirator Gao Ming.
MyNewsLA.com talked about the pleading.
There are dozens more, but I think if you’ve read these, you’ve probably got every detail worth noting. If anyone finds something else, please drop a comment.
According to unnamed sources in the Daily Mail.
“An unsubstantiated report received by Stu News Newport suggested that the “shooter at the residence” may have been on site to offer the residence some sort of security measures.”