Last Troiani Murder Defendant to Be Tried in Ventura County

Kevin Watkins, the final of six defendants in the celebrated Carlo Troiani murder trial, will be tried in Ventura County, Vista Superior Court Judge Gilbert Nares has ruled.

The trial is scheduled to begin May 9, and Nares said Thursday he will preside over it himself because of his familiarity with the complex case.

Nares previously had ruled that Watkins should be tried outside of San Diego County because of extensive publicity about the killing of Carlo Troiani in August, 1984, and the subsequent prosecution of his murderers.

Troiani’s wife, Laura Troiani, was convicted last year of first-degree murder after prosecutors showed she was the mastermind behind the plot to kill him for $96,000 in life insurance benefits. The same jury then sentenced her to life in prison without the possibility of parole, finding she murdered for financial gain and killed her husband while lying in wait.

Prosecutors identified five men, all Marines at the time, who allegedly conspired with Laura Troiani to kill her husband in exchange for $500. Four of the five subsequently pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. The triggerman, Mark Schulz, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and the other three were sentenced to terms of 25 years to life in prison.

Watkins, now 22, is the last remaining defendant and has insisted on his innocence. The district attorney’s office alleges that Watkins participated in planning the murder scheme and helped watched Laura Troiani’s two children the night her husband was shot twice on a desolate stretch of North River Road, near a back entrance to Camp Pendleton.