OXNARD : Judge Releases Youth Charged in Shooting

A Ventura County judge has granted the release of a 17-year-old former Oxnard High School student who is awaiting trial on charges that he shot his stepfather to death following his mother’s suicide.

Superior Court Judge Robert C. Bradley ordered the youth to be released from Colston Youth Center on Thursday to the care of his grandparents, Fred and Iantha Jones of Oxnard, pending a Juvenile Court trial Dec. 28.

The youth, who has not been identified because of his age, faces charges of voluntary manslaughter and use of a weapon for allegedly shooting Walter Bell, 43, to death on Nov. 30. The shooting came after the youth learned that his mother, Regina Lewis, 42, had been fatally shot.

The youth’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Howard J. Asher, has said that his client shot Bell following Lewis’ suicide because he believed Bell had killed her.

According to Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard E. Holmes, Bradley called the youth’s release a rare case, but said that the defendant’s lack of criminal record and his retired grandparents’ offer of 24-hour care made it “an ideal situation.”