Oxnard Remains the County Murder Capital : Crime: The homicide rate jumps 50% in 1990. But the police chief says the rate has dropped sharply in the past decade. So has the countywide total.

Oxnard remained the murder capital of Ventura County in 1990, recording a 50% increase in homicides that contrasted with a slight decline in murders for the county as a whole.

Nine of the county’s 20 homicides during the year took place in Oxnard, up from six murders there in 1989. Across the county, homicides dropped slightly from 23 in 1989.

The decline in the county’s overall murder total continued a decade-long decline from a high of 38 county homicides in 1980.

And Oxnard Police Chief Robert P. Owens, viewing the 1990 murder increase in Oxnard as statistically insignificant, noted that the city’s murder totals also have dropped sharply during the past decade.

“Sure, in the context of Ventura County, we look terrible,” Owens said. “But if you look at cities of approximately our size throughout the state, our crime rate is near the bottom.”

Indeed, Ventura County’s murder rate of three homicides per 100,000 people is less than a third of the state average. And although Oxnard’s rate of 6.5 homicides per 100,000 is twice as high as the county rate, it still falls far below state and national averages.

“We are the largest city in the county, with 137,000 people, so naturally we get most of the homicides,” Owens said. “This is also a blue-collar city, and homicide is likely to be larger in a blue-collar city.”

But Owens said Oxnard has showed an encouraging and steady decline in violent deaths since 1979 when the city witnessed 25 homicides. “Ten or 11 years ago, we had 25 homicides and two-thirds were drug- or vice-related. Today, it is clearly a substantial improvement.”

Local law enforcement experts pointed out that few of the homicides in Oxnard, or elsewhere in the county, were the result of gang- or drug-related violence--a stark contrast to the trend in Los Angeles and other metropolitan areas.

Instead, the bulk of 1990 homicides came from soured romances or disagreements among friends, acquaintances or neighbors that took a tragic turn.

Of the 20 homicides in the county last year, police so far have arrested and charged nine people with crimes. The district attorney’s office declined to charge suspects in six other homicides because of insufficient evidence or because they were cleared of wrongdoing. Two murders were committed by men who committed suicide after killing their wives. Police have been unable to identify or locate suspects in three unsolved homicides.

Overall, police and prosecutors said they appreciate the continuing drop of murders in a county already established by FBI crime statistics as the safest county of its size in the West.

“It’s always encouraging when the homicide rate goes down,” said Kevin McGee, chief deputy district attorney.

In addition to the nine murders in Oxnard, there were two homicides in each of the cities of Santa Paula, Camarillo and Thousand Oaks and two in unincorporated areas of the county. Simi Valley, Port Hueneme and Ventura each had one homicide.

Of all the homicides last year, the grisly slaying of an 8-year-old boy stood out as one of the most violent crimes in recent county history, investigators said. Paul Bailly of Northridge allegedly was sexually molested, gagged and strangled before his body was set ablaze in a field south of Simi Valley.

The schoolboy allegedly was kidnaped on March 23 after his mother dropped him off at a child-care program at Darby Avenue Elementary School in Northridge. His body was found about noon the same day by firefighters who were called to extinguish a brush fire in the Santa Susana Knolls area south of Simi Valley.

The next day, police arrested Gregory Scott Smith, a 23-year-old Canoga Park man who had been fired from the child-care program on March 6. In December, a Ventura County Superior Court judge declared a mistrial in the murder, kidnaping and arson case against Smith because of conflict of interest involving the public defender. But a second murder trial is expected sometime this spring.

In another widely publicized case, Ronald Vicinsky, 38, shot and killed his wife, Elsa, before taking his own life. Her son reported a blow-by-blow account of the violence during a telephone call to the Sheriff’s Department.

The recorded call for help from Elsa Vicinsky’s 15-year-old son, prompted by his mother’s screams, served as a grim transcript of the final moments of the Camarillo couple’s lives. Daniel Sandridge stayed on the phone as his stepfather told him that he had killed his mother. The boy then related how Vicinsky went outside the house, put a .22-caliber rifle to his head and shot himself.

Following are the other murders committed in the county last year:

* The year’s first homicide came on March 17, when Rufino Ducler, 45, was killed in a drive-by shooting at a convenience store parking lot in La Colonia, Oxnard’s Latino barrio. Police said they believed that Ducler, who bled to death on the parking lot pavement, was the victim of mistaken identity.

Police said the shooting may have been provoked by drug dealers who were operating in the area where Ducler was shot. The investigation is continuing.

* On April 19, Jose Narvaez, 49, a Thousand Oaks nurseryman, was stabbed once in the stomach and three times in the back with a butcher knife.

A woman who saw Jose Luis Navarro punch Narvaez and run from the scene described the incident to Ventura County sheriff’s deputies, who later arrested Navarro. Navarro testified during his trial that he had sodomized Narvaez that night but had stabbed Narvaez in self-defense when the man tried forcibly to sodomize him.

The 17-year-old Mexican immigrant was found not guilty of first-degree murder at a jury trial. He later pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter to avoid going through another trial on second-degree murder charges, said his lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Steve P. Lipson.

His sentencing is scheduled for next week. He faces four to 12 years in state prison, Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard E. Holmes said.

* On May 5, Beatrice Chamlee, 70, of Camarillo was fatally shot by her 68-year-old husband, Archer, who then turned the gun on himself, Ventura County Sheriff’s Department officials said.

The couple’s daughter found them in the bedroom of their trailer. Archer Chamlee was pronounced dead at the scene, but his wife was transported to the Ventura County Medical Center where she died the next day, authorities said.

In a note to his children, Archer Chamlee said he was despondent over his wife’s medical problems and the future financial burden they might bring, Sheriff’s Lt. Joe Harwell said.

* On May 28, Samuel Ruiz, 40, of Santa Paula was killed in a shoot-out with his neighbor Delfino Lopez, 43, in the driveway between their homes.

Lopez apparently shot Ruiz in the chest, abdomen and right arm in the attack, Deputy Dist. Atty. James Ellison said. Ruiz fired a shot at Lopez but missed him, officials said.

Santa Paula police said the shooting was related to a fight involving the men’s sons.

Lopez was arrested on suspicion of murder the day of the shooting but was later released when the district attorney’s office determined that investigators could not disprove his claim that he shot Ruiz in self-defense, Ellison said.

* On July 3, Bruce Eugene Pope, 62, was found beaten and strangled with a telephone cord in his Port Hueneme condominium. A television, computer and other belongings were missing from the condominium, which had been ransacked.

Police have said they believe that Pope, a free-lance business consultant, met Anthony Eugene Diaz, 27, by chance and invited the tile setter into his condominium.

Diaz apparently tried to rob Pope and a struggle ensued, Port Hueneme Sgt. Dennis Fitzgerald said.

Acting on a tip, police located Diaz in Contra Costa County in October. The Ventura County grand jury indicted Diaz on charges of murder, robbery and a separate charge of murder committed during a robbery. His jury trial is set for Jan. 28, the district attorney’s office said.

* On July 8, Gary Ramirez, 25, of Ventura was shot and killed in Santa Paula, the victim of another argument between families over their children.

Ramirez was slain after he attempted to intervene in a fight between his brother-in-law, Pedro Castillo, and a neighbor who lived two doors away.

Witnesses said Castillo had tried to stop a teen-ager who was visiting a neighbor from taunting one of his sons. Castillo and the neighbor ended up in a fistfight, and Ramirez was shot trying to break up the fight.

The gunman, whose name was unknown to the Castillo family, escaped before police arrived. Police, who are continuing the investigation, believe that the man fled to Mexico, Santa Paula Police Cmdr. Bob Gonzales said.

* On Oct. 4, the nude body of Ellen Cleary, 37, was found floating in the bathtub of her Westlake condominium. Her head was submerged in water and covered with three white plastic bags. Sheriff’s detectives responding to the case found the living room floor splattered with blood and a bloodied steak knife in the restroom.

Timothy Velasco, 22, of Van Nuys was arrested on suspicion of the slaying after he allegedly told a friend that he had killed Cleary, who was his girlfriend. A jury trial is set for March 25.

* On Oct. 22, William F. Leadbetter, 17, was fatally shot in the eye outside an Oxnard laundry facility apparently because he had stared at the gunman as their vehicles passed each other.

Leadbetter looked at Jessie Casares and his friends as if he knew them when their cars passed, according to testimony in court. Leadbetter’s truck then turned around and pulled alongside Casares’ car, with one of Leadbetter’s passengers preparing to hit their vehicle with a pipe or rifle, according to court testimony.

Casares’ car then sped away and entered the parking lot as the truck followed. Casares got out. A witness testified that Casares fired a pistol at Leadbetter’s truck as it pulled in behind the car. Casares was ordered to stand trial on charges of murder, using a firearm and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was earlier convicted of possessing a dagger.

* On Nov. 4, Ricardo Perea, 46, answered the door at his Oxnard motel room and was shot three times in the chest as his two young sons watched television, witnesses and authorities said.

Amilcar Joseph Mondesi Jr., 33, of Port Hueneme was arrested on suspicion of slaying the construction contractor, who died less than an hour after he was shot.

Neighbors said Mondesi and Perea both had lived at various times during the last year with a Port Hueneme woman. And Perea’s relatives said they understood the two had had a disagreement several weeks before.

But the district attorney’s office declined to charge Mondesi, and the investigation is continuing, police said.

* On Nov. 24, Richard Louis Rodriguez Jr. was struck by gunfire twice in the chest as he was riding in the back of a pickup driven by his father in Oxnard.

Police said a flurry of beer bottles hurled at the house of Angel Orona Rodriguez Sr., who is not related to the victim, prompted him to grab his .22-caliber rifle and fire upon a passing pickup truck whose occupants he thought were responsible, police said. Rodriguez apparently was irritated by attacks on his home provoked by his son’s gang affiliation, police said.

Rodriguez was charged by the district attorney’s office with murder and has pleaded not guilty. A preliminary hearing is set for Jan. 10.

* On Dec. 16, the body of Najat Chehade, 26, of North Hollywood was found beside an isolated road north of Ojai. The woman, who had been strangled, was discovered by a passing motorist. An autopsy revealed that she had been killed 16 to 17 hours earlier, authorities said.

Ventura County Sheriff’s detectives are trying to locate the woman’s friends. The investigation is continuing, Lt. Harwell said.