Transient Held in Slaying of Simi Resident

A Simi Valley man was shot to death in his home in a fashionable condominium complex one block from the police station, but shocked neighbors said Saturday that they heard nothing.

Gregory D. Minor, 37, a Blue Cross insurance employee, died of two gunshot wounds to the head between 4:30 and 7:45 p.m. Friday, Deputy Coroner’s Investigator Jim Wingate said.

It was the first homicide of the year in the city and the seventh in Ventura County, Wingate said.

Shortly after 4 a.m. Saturday, police arrested a 22-year-old transient who was sleeping in his van about a mile from the home Minor shared with Donna Richardson in the 3200 block of Darby Street, Simi Valley Police Sgt. Ken Tacke said.

Oscar Barrascout was booked at the East Valley sheriff’s station on suspicion of murder, Tacke said. Barrascout’s bail was set at $1 million, an East Valley deputy said.

“We believe Oscar was the last person to see him alive,” Tacke said.

Police released no information on the motive of the shooting. Detectives were still at the home Saturday trying to piece together the events of the killing that left neighbors upset and saddened.

“It’s scary,” said one neighbor, who requested anonymity because she feared for her safety. “I thought Simi was a nice place to live.”

“I was very shocked when I heard,” another neighbor said as she rocked her month-old infant. “My two older kids were here alone.”

Police said Richardson arrived home after work shortly before 7:45 p.m. Friday to find blood spots on the entryway carpet and in the hallway. There was no sign of forced entry, police said.

Upset and unable to find Minor, Richardson went to a neighbor for help, said Dave Sobel, who lives upstairs next door.

“She came and got my wife and she went down there and they looked through the whole condo again,” Sobel said. “They looked in closets and everywhere.”

The two women found nothing, and one of them called police. Officers arrived soon after and searched the home again. They discovered Minor’s body under the bed in the master bedroom, Wingate said.

Tacke said Barrascout had been an acquaintance of Minor’s.

Sobel said he saw a young man outside Minor’s home shortly after 5 p.m. Friday. The man had gone to Minor’s door and then returned, leaving his backpack in the seat of a white Corvette that Minor had been trying to sell. Sobel said he assumed that the man had come to buy the car.

Minor was known to his neighbors as a friendly man, who played with his young son when the boy came to visit. Minor is survived by his wife, Thyjuan Minor of Northridge, and a son described by neighbors as about 4 years old.