Woman Is Charged in Slaying of Car Dealer : Homicide: Authorities release an Oxnard man who was arrested as a possible accessory in the death of Tony Bridges.

Ventura County prosecutors charged a Santa Paula woman Thursday with the murder of car dealer Tony Bridges, but they decided to release an Oxnard man who had been arrested as a possible accessory.

Veronica Olivares Lira, 26, was charged with murder and a special-circumstance allegation that the killing was committed during a robbery.

If convicted of the special circumstance, Lira could face death in the gas chamber or life in prison without possibility of parole. Deputy Dist. Atty. James D. Ellison said prosecutors have not decided whether to seek the death penalty.

Ellison declined to explain the decision not to charge John Leivas, 20, who was arrested in Oxnard on Tuesday evening about the time that Lira was arrested in Santa Paula.

Ellison said he could disclose few additional details about the crime. He said that Lira and Bridges were acquainted, that she robbed him of jewelry and more than $300 cash, and that Bridges probably was shot with his own .22-caliber derringer. The murder weapon has been found, he said, but he declined to say where.

Ventura County sheriff’s investigators still do not know where the shooting occurred, Ellison said. The car dealer’s nude body, shot twice in the chest, was found Dec. 26 in an El Rio field. It had apparently been there for several days, investigators said. His car was found the next day on an Oxnard street known as a Mecca for drug dealers.

Investigators have said Bridges, 45, had a history of cocaine abuse, and in May, 1990, he was arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of cocaine. He was arrested in the same Oxnard neighborhood where his car was found.

Lira also has a drug record, having been charged last July with possession of 12 doses of LSD. She was placed in a county diversion program for first-time drug offenders.

Lira entered no plea during a brief appearance Thursday afternoon in Ventura County Municipal Court, where her arraignment was postponed until Jan. 23 at the request of Deputy Public Defender Brian Fitzpatrick. But Lira’s father, Alfredo Lira, said he believes that his daughter is innocent.

“I can’t imagine how. . . . I can’t believe a woman of her size would be able to carry a dead body by herself to the middle of a field,” Alfredo Lira said in Spanish. “It can’t be believed that it was my daughter.”

Ellison declined to say whether there are other suspects. “It’s still an ongoing investigation,” he said.

Municipal Judge Barry B. Klopfer denied several media requests to photograph Veronica Lira during her court appearance. The judge said identification may become an issue, and he implied that witnesses could be influenced by publication of her photo.

The 4-foot-11 Lira stood next to Fitzpatrick, wearing a blue jail outfit and a white T-shirt, her straight black hair resting on her shoulders. Her only utterance was “yes” when Klopfer asked whether she consented to the two-week delay for her arraignment. She glanced once at her father, who was sitting about 10 feet away in the second row of spectators.

Ellison asked that Lira be held without bail because of the possibility that the death penalty will be sought, and the judge agreed. In addition to the allegation of murder, Lira is charged with using a firearm and causing great bodily injury.

As he left the courtroom, Alfredo Lira described the anguish that he felt upon his daughter’s arrest. “All of this comes as a shock to me,” he said. “I was up all night remembering how affectionate she was as a child. . . . She was a very noble girl, very warm toward us.”

The oldest of four sisters, Veronica Lira graduated from Ventura High School near the top of her class and took college classes in banking and mechanics, her father said.

“She would lock herself up in her room and read and read and study all night,” he said. She did not move out of her parents’ home until age 23 and remained close to her family, her father said. He said he was not aware of his daughter’s drug history.

He last saw her Saturday at the funeral of a cousin. “She looked good. She seemed calm,” the father said. “It didn’t seem that she was worried about anything.”

The fact that she did not leave the area suggests that his daughter is innocent, Alfredo Lira said. A woman of her intelligence, he said, “would have known to escape or go into hiding after committing a crime. How can you explain that she didn’t do anything?”

His voice trembling, the father added: “I love her very much.”

In another development Thursday, the district attorney’s office explained its decision not to charge Bridges after his 1990 arrest on suspicion of being under the influence of cocaine.

Bridges was stopped about 1:10 a.m. while driving a 1990 silver Chevrolet Lumina, according to records. In his report, Oxnard Police Officer Michael Radziewicz said he stopped the car because it had dealer plates, was brand-new, and was in a high-crime neighborhood at a late hour--circumstances that the officer deemed suspicious.

But under the law, the circumstances were not enough to justify a warrantless stop, Deputy Dist. Atty. Rebecca L. Day wrote in her evaluation of the case. There was “no reasonable suspicion to believe that the defendant was engaged in criminal activity,” Day wrote. “Therefore, the investigative stop/detention was unjustified,” and any evidence or statements obtained afterward would not be admissible in court.

After stopping Bridges, Radziewicz noticed what appeared to be a cocaine pipe in the car dealer’s front pocket, according to the officer’s report. Bridges identified himself as the owner of Tony Bridges Chevrolet and said he was taking home a man in the back seat whom he had picked up a short time earlier, according to the officer’s report.

Radziewicz said Bridges had a rapid pulse rate--132 beats per minute, compared to the normal range of 60 to 100--and dilated pupils, both signs of cocaine use. A female passenger also had dilated pupils and a 138 pulse rate, the officer said.

The back-seat passenger was allowed to leave, but Bridges and his female companion were taken to the Oxnard police station, where they waived their rights to speak to an attorney before questioning.

At the station, Bridges told investigators that he had been using cocaine for a couple of months and had last used the drug a few days earlier, according to the officer’s report. He denied that he was in the neighborhood to buy drugs and said he did not have a cocaine problem, according to Radziewicz’s report.

“I asked the suspect why he smoked cocaine and he did not answer me,” the officer wrote.

Times staff writer Ron Soble contributed to this story.