Drug Suspect Died Clutching Clues, Affidavit Says : Oxnard: Documents theorize that Osiel Ponce was a middleman who was killed after authorities interrupted a cocaine deal.

When Oxnard police found Osiel Ponce’s bullet-riddled body in a parked car last month, the victim was clutching a list of three drug suspects who had been arrested in Washington state, according to court documents.

Next to him, on the seat, lay U.S. District Court papers charging the three with possession of five kilograms of cocaine.

The clues from Ponce’s car have helped police develop a theory on why he died, which an Oxnard narcotics detective laid out in an affidavit for a search warrant on Ponce’s home.

In the affidavit, Detective Robert Thomas alleges: that Ponce, a 37-year-old field worker and 20-year resident of Ventura County, was the middleman in the sale of five kilos of cocaine; that the buyers were busted before they could pay Ponce for the drugs; and that Ponce was killed because he could not pay his suppliers.

Oxnard homicide Sgt. Charles Dunham confirmed that this is one of the theories police have on the case, and that there is a sole suspect in the killing. He declined to comment further.

The prime suspect is on parole for a conviction stemming from a 1988 traffic stop in Malibu in which police found four kilograms of cocaine, some heroin and $43,361 in the car he was driving, the affidavit said.

In a search of Ponce’s home, approved by Municipal Court Judge Barry B. Klopfer on Oct. 23 and executed that day, police reportedly seized none of the narcotics, paraphernalia or drug-dealing records they had hoped to find. Nor did they report seizing any documents that would tie Ponce to the suspect, according to the search warrant return.

But the affidavit outlines in chilling detail the events leading up to Ponce’s death:

Eight days beforehand, on Oct. 11, police learned that authorities in the Vancouver, Wash., area had arrested four suspects: Avelino Santa Cruz Higareda, Alvaro Olguin, Jesus Santana Olguin and Santos Valenzuela on federal drug charges for possession of five kilos of cocaine.

A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent told police that three of the four had listed their addresses in Oxnard, the affidavit said.

Ponce’s wife, Rosa Ponce, told police after her husband’s death that he was involved in drug sales.

She said he had warned her several days earlier “to be careful and watch the kids closely because they were in danger,” the affidavit said.

She told police that “her husband had told (her) that this was because of the five ‘muchachos’ that he had recently lost,” which she took to mean narcotics that had been lost in a drug deal, the affidavit said.

She also told police that the people Ponce was involved with were part of a large chain of people involved in drug sales, and that she feared for the safety of herself and her children.

One hour before he was killed, Ponce received a telephone call and left the house, taking some court papers with him, his wife told police.

Ponce had left to meet the supplier, bringing with him the U.S. court papers outlining the charges stemming from the cocaine seizure, Thomas wrote in the affidavit.

“When police seize drugs in transactions such as this . . . the ‘middleman’ must immediately prove to the source that the cocaine was lost to police intervention rather than theft by him or one of his workers,” Thomas wrote. “This is extremely important in these cases where the value of the drugs, as in this case, had a wholesale value of approximately $75,000 and a retail value of approximately $400,000.”

On the evening of Oct. 19, neighbors of Durley Park called police to report that they heard gunshots.

A patrolman arrived at 6:17 p.m. and found Ponce slumped in the front seat of his bronze, 1984 Mercury Cougar, shot to death.

In his hand was clutched a piece of paper with three names written on it--Avelino Santa Cruz, Alvaro Quiroa Olguin and Jesus Santana Olguin.

The unnamed murder suspect’s fingerprints were found on the court papers beside Ponce’s body, Thomas’ affidavit said.

At about 7 p.m. on Oct. 19, shortly after Ponce died, someone knocked on the Ponces’ front door to tell Rosa Ponce that her husband had been involved in an accident, the affidavit said. Warily, she did not open the door, and the person walked away.