More than a week after Newport Beach police announced they had found and arrested a suspect in a 40-year-old murder, the man has been released and county prosecutors say they have no plans to charge him. said.
On December 6, Newport Beach Police announced in a social media post that they had arrested Michael Larry Manatt, 70, of Huntington Beach, in connection with the 1983 murder of Ronald Guskey.
Guskey didn’t show up for work at his family’s construction company and his girlfriend found him dead in the second-floor hallway of his Newport Shores home, the Orange County Register reported at the time. . The newspaper said authorities said the man was hit with a blunt object, but no details about the suspect were released.
Newport Beach detectives recently reopened the investigation and “reviewed numerous reports, studied evidence and completed additional interviews,” the department said in announcing Manatt’s arrest.
Detectives presented evidence to a judge, who signed an arrest warrant, and police took Manatt into custody “without incident,” the department said.
But more than a week later, Manatt remains out on bail and the Orange County District Attorney’s Office has not received a case file from police.
Orange County District Attorney spokeswoman Kimberly Edds said, “Nothing has been filed with us and nothing will be filed.”
It is unclear whether Mr. Mannatt has hired an attorney.
A Newport Beach Police Department spokesperson could not be reached Tuesday for comment on updates on the case or whether Manatt remains a suspect in Guskey’s murder.
