<font style=”COLOR:RED”> BREAKING NEWS:</font> Man arrested for wife’s death

Huntington Beach police have arrested the husband of a woman found fatally stabbed Friday in a local motel.

Juan Ruiz Marin, 38, of Huntington Beach was arrested Friday on suspicion of murder, hours after his wife, Phyllis Mendez, was found dead in a room at the Starlight Inn, 18382 Beach Blvd., Lt. Dave Bunetta said. Mendez was 32.

Police found the body at about 5:50 p.m. Friday after responding to reports of a woman screaming at the hotel, authorities said. Mendez had been stabbed in the upper torso, Bunetta said.

They arrested Marin about three hours later in Santa Ana near a bus stop, Bunetta said.

Efforts to reach family members were unsuccessful.

Marin is being held on $1-million bail at Orange County Jail and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court in Westminster.

MICHAEL ALEXANDER may be reached at (714) 966-4618 or at [email protected].