An admitted white supremacist gang member was sentenced Friday to 56 years to life in prison, four-plus years after he stabbed an Iranian-American to death following an argument at a Laguna Niguel bar.

A Newport Beach jury late last year convicted Craig Matthew Tanber of second-degree murder for killing Shayan Mazroei, 22, outside Patsy’s Irish Pub over Labor Day weekend in 2015.

Tanber, 42, will have to serve 45 years before being eligible for parole.

Before the sentence was announced, Mazroei’s mother, Shahzad, gave a tearful statement to the court as other emotional family members looked on. Her husband, Hamid, Mazroei’s father, stood alongside her.

“We lost everything,” she said as Tanber, seated next to his attorney, looked ahead. “The only justice … is that no other parents go through what we went through.”

Craig Matthew Tanber, an admitted white supremacist gang member, speaks to the court as he sits with his attorney, Alisha Montoro, left, of the Orange County Public Defender’s Office, just prior to being sentenced to 56 years to life in prison in Orange County Superior Court Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach on Friday, February 28, 2020. It was four-plus years after he stabbed Shayan Mazroei, 22, outside Patsy’s Irish Pub in Laguna Niguel over Labor Day weekend in 2015. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Superior Court Judge Gregg L. Prickett sentences Craig Matthew Tanber, an admitted white supremacist gang member, to 56 years to life in prison in Orange County Superior Court Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach on Friday, February 28, 2020. It was four-plus years after he stabbed Shayan Mazroei, 22, outside Patsy’s Irish Pub in Laguna Niguel over Labor Day weekend in 2015. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Craig Matthew Tanber, an admitted white supremacist gang member, sits with his attorney, Alisha Montoro, left, of the Orange County Public Defender’s Office, as he is sentenced to 56 years to life in prison in Orange County Superior Court Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach on Friday, February 28, 2020. It was four-plus years after he stabbed Shayan Mazroei, 22, outside Patsy’s Irish Pub in Laguna Niguel over Labor Day weekend in 2015. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Craig Matthew Tanber, center, an admitted white supremacist gang member, is led from the courtroom after being sentenced to 56 years to life in prison in Orange County Superior Court Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach on Friday, February 28, 2020. It was four-plus years after he stabbed Shayan Mazroei, 22, outside Patsy’s Irish Pub in Laguna Niguel over Labor Day weekend in 2015. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)



Tanber was mostly silent but also offered a statement before his sentencing.

“To all that have suffered due to this, I deeply apologize,” he said. “No parent should outlive their child. If I could do one thing today, I’d bring your son back to you. I hope this closure starts the healing process to your hearts.”

Following the second-degree murder verdict in December, Mazroei’s parents expressed disappointment that Tanber wasn’t found guilty of first-degree murder for the death of their only child.

On Friday, Mazroei’s mother said Friday’s verdict gave her some satisfaction – Tanber will likely never be released.

“It’s not relief for me,” she said. “I’m not going to get my son back. (But) society is safer. …He’s not going to hurt anymore.”

Tanber was released from prison only weeks before killing Mazroei, having served time for his role in the slaying of a man who stole money from the ex-girlfriend of another white-supremacist gang member.

Tanber’s latest trial focused not on whether he killed Mazroei, an act Tanber admitted to, but whether the slaying was self-defense or driven by anger.

The fatal confrontation began with an argument between Mazroei and Tanber’s then-girlfriend, Elizabeth Thornburg.

Prosecutor’s alleged that Thornburg criticized Mazroei’s Middle Eastern heritage, while Tanber’s defense attorney contended that Mazroei was rude to Thornburg when she asked his name to determine how many players were between them on a pool table signup sheet.

The argument continued when the two stepped out to smoke cigarettes, with Thornburg spitting on Mazroei several times, and Mazroei responding by spitting on Thornburg once.

A bouncer kicked Thornburg and Tanber out of the bar.

Witnesses described an enraged Tanber ranting outside for more than five minutes, uttering a series of explicit racial epithets and mentioning having a knife and wanting to stab someone.

When the bouncer walked away to assist a bartender, Tanber opened a door to the bar, pointed at Mazroei and yelled, “You!”

As Mazroei walked through the bar door, surveillance video shows Tanber punching Mazroei in the face and stabbing him in the heart.

Tanber then fled.

Police found him several days later at a Garden Grove motel.

Prosecutors opted not to pursue a hate-crime charge against Tanber, determining there wasn’t enough evidence.

In a 2017 civil trial, a jury found that Patsy’s Irish Pub was not at fault for Mazroei’s death, and ordered Tanber to pay the bulk of a $6 million settlement to Mazroei’s family. The family’s attorney has acknowledged that is very unlikely the family will ever receive much from Tanber.

Thornburg was charged with being an accessory after the fact to Mazroei’s killing and is awaiting trial. She has pleaded not guilty.

On Friday, Mazroei’s mother said the family had hoped for more serious charges against her, because she started the confrontation.

Shahzad Mazroei said she, her husband and perhaps other family members plan on attending Thornburg’s hearings:

“That’s next.”