Man Accused of Threatening D.A. to Be Tried

A Newbury Park man was ordered to stand trial by a Municipal Court judge Thursday for allegedly threatening to murder a Ventura County district attorney whom he blamed for not effectively prosecuting the men who killed his son.

Charles Flores, 48, believed that Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Holmes had botched the cases against the three men charged with beating his 19-year-old son at a party in January, 1989, prosecutors said.

The preliminary hearing featured a tape-recording of a 15-minute telephone conversation on Feb. 6 in which Flores said he intended to seek retribution against the district attorney’s office.

“I don’t care how long it takes. I’m going to put you down,” Flores told Deputy Dist. Atty. Ronald C. Janes. “If it’s through politics, the media, I don’t care if I have to hire someone to blow the building to Santa Barbara.”

Municipal Judge Thomas Hutchins ordered Flores to stand trial in two weeks on a felony count of threatening great bodily injury or death and a misdemeanor count of making a telephone call with the intent to annoy or threaten or inflict injury.

The felony count is punishable by one year in jail or a state prison term of 16 months to three years. The misdemeanor is punishable with a maximum of one year in jail.

Janes, the supervisor in charge of the major crimes and narcotics division, testified that Flores’ threats took place during two telephone calls.

During the first conversation, Janes testified, Flores said: “I’m at my wit’s end. I’ve had enough of you people. I’m coming after you.”

Janes testified that Flores then told him that the evening before he had taken his gun with him to the parking lot and waited for Holmes.

“He sounded dead serious,” Janes said. “I was very concerned. I believed he might try to murder Mr. Holmes.”

Janes said he then told Flores that his office was too noisy for him to hear the conversation properly and hung up, saying he would call back. Janes gave his secretary a note to warn Holmes. Then he called Flores back from a telephone that enabled him to record the second conversation.

“I can’t beat City Hall, so I’m going to rid myself of City Hall,” Flores said, sounding weary.

Flores said he carried a gun and slept on the couch with it. He delivered a fragmented talk on how the death of his son and other stresses were affecting him.

“I’m to the point where I cannot sleep. I don’t eat,” Flores said.

“I’m angry, I’m hurt, I’m confused,” he added. “We lost everything we owned. We don’t have nothing.”

Most of all, he said, he believed that his son’s killers had not been brought to justice.

John Flores, 19, was killed on Jan. 20, 1989, after he arrived uninvited at a party in Newbury Park.

He was asked to leave three times but refused to do so, making a racial remark about Larnell Anthony Bush, 19, who is black.

A witness said another party-goer, John Terry Yurek Jr., 19, grabbed Flores by the hair and slammed his head against the pavement. Witnesses identified Bush and James Gambrall, 19, as participants in the altercation.

Flores died that night as a result of brain injuries.

A preliminary hearing found insufficient evidence to prosecute Gambrall. The jury acquitted Yurek of manslaughter charges. Bush was convicted of aggravated assault, spent 90 days in the Ventura County Jail and received five years’ probation.

At the end of the conversation, Janes asked if he could get help for Flores, asked him to surrender his gun and finally asked to speak to his wife, Sharon. She agreed to take the gun out of the house.

Flores sat calmly through the proceedings. He fixed his attention on the two attorneys and did not look back at his wife, who leaned forward in the front row, licking her lips and wringing her hands.

Holmes said Flores had threatened to shoot him when he filed manslaughter instead of murder charges against Yurek.

Holmes said he feared for his life when he listened to the tape. He said he thought he would have been murdered had he not been out of town the day before.

Defense attorney William Maxwell argued that Flores had “made noises over a long time” and never carried through with his threats.

“There’s an awful lot in this case that has to do with treatment of people and how this guy was handled,” Maxwell said later. “As victims go, these people were shunted aside and not well treated.”

Flores remains in custody. His bail was set at $500,000.