OXNARD : Roommate Held in Slaying Over Tools

A 27-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder in Oxnard after his roommate died in a fight they had over the roommate’s tools, authorities said Monday.

Ignacio Alvarez Huerta was being held on $250,000 bail in the Ventura County Jail, a jail spokeswoman said.

The death of Huerta’s roommate, tentatively identified by police as Antonio Gallardo, was the 11th homicide in Ventura County this year, according to the Ventura County coroner’s office.

Alvarez was living with Gallardo in the garage of an apartment complex in the 100 block of South Roosevelt Avenue, said Detective Dan Christian of the Oxnard Police Department.

Christian said Gallardo became upset that Alvarez, a construction worker, had used his tools, and they began fighting about 7:50 p.m. Sunday in the alley in back of the complex.

Witnesses told police that Huerta kicked Gallardo and hit him with a metal frame, similar to the skeleton of a heavy-duty television tray, Christian said.

A witness told one of the apartment residents about the fight, and police and an ambulance were called, Christian said.

Huerta waited for police in the alley and surrendered when they arrived.

Gallardo was taken to St. John’s Regional Medical Center, where he was dead on arrival, police said. Gallardo died of head and chest trauma, said coroner’s Investigator Jim Wingate.