PORT HUENEME : Man, 27, Charged in July Slaying

A 27-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of strangling a 62-year-old man during a July robbery, police said Wednesday.

Anthony Eugene Diaz, who lived in Oxnard when the slaying occurred, was being held in the Ventura County Jail on $515,000 bail on suspicion of murder and several probation violations, a jail spokesman said.

Port Hueneme police, who have been pursuing Diaz for months, arrested Diaz Monday evening in San Pablo in Contra Costa County, where he was staying with his father, said Sgt. Dennis Fitzgerald of the Port Hueneme Police Department.

Authorities said Diaz beat and strangled Bruce Eugene Pope, a self-employed free-lance business consultant, on July 3.

Pope, who had no close relatives, was taking care of two condominiums owned by doctors in a guarded complex in the 900 block of Lighthouse Way in Port Hueneme, Fitzgerald said.

A renter who lived with Pope returned home about midnight and found that the condominium had been ransacked, Fitzgerald said.

A television, videocassette recorder, computer, camera and cash were missing. The man then went to summon security guards, and after their arrival at the residence the body was found, Fitzgerald said.

Pope was severely beaten with household objects and then strangled, Fitzgerald said.

Police believe that Pope and Diaz met each other by chance, and that Diaz was invited to Pope’s condominium, Fitzgerald said.

Diaz apparently decided to rob Pope and a struggle ensued, Fitzgerald said.

“I don’t think the initial motive was to kill,” Fitzgerald said. “I just think he was going to rob the guy, and it got out of hand and he killed him.”

In August, police received a tip that helped officers identify Diaz and link him to evidence at the scene. The search took police to Arkansas and then to the Bay Area.