OXNARD : 2 Transients Held in Beating Death

Two transients were arrested in the slaying of a 25-year-old man whose battered body was found near railroad tracks in Oxnard, authorities said Thursday.

Horacio Rosales Prudente, 29, and Antonio Jimenez Chavez, 23, were being held at the Ventura County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail each.

The two were arrested at 7 p.m. Wednesday, just 13 hours after the body of transient Roberto Gonzales Ordonez was discovered lying in the railroad yard in the 500 block of East 5th Street, Oxnard police officers said.

Gonzales Ordonez died of neck injuries and had suffered head and facial injuries, authorities said. Detectives said it appeared that there had been a fight in the area. They found a piece of wood nearby that may have been used in the attack.

The motive of the slaying may have been robbery since Gonzales Ordonez’s empty wallet was discovered some distance away, police said.

Rosales Prudente and Jimenez Chavez were found by detectives at the Oxnard Rescue Mission on East 6th Street.

They apparently had been drinking with Gonzales Ordonez either the morning of his death or the evening before, police said.

Gonzales Ordonez had been living with his brother in the crawl space beneath an abandoned warehouse near the tracks for a year, the brother told police.

An unidentified jogger apparently saw Gonzales Ordonez lying on the tracks and told station personnel it looked like a man was injured, police said.