32 Slayings in the County Make ’92 an Average Year : Crime: Officials say the number is about the same as a bad weekend in Los Angeles County. More than half of the killings occurred in Oxnard.

Statistically, 1992 was just about an average year for homicide in Ventura County.

The reasons for killing were familiar: rage, despair, drugs, gangs, mental illness, police reaction.

Thirty-two people died at the hands of others--some shot, some stabbed, some bludgeoned--close to the average of 33.6 for the previous 17 years. The number was fewer than the 48 homicides committed here in 1991, more than the relatively low 20 committed in 1990--and about the same as a bad weekend in Los Angeles County, officials point out.

More than half the killings occurred in Oxnard.

Seventeen people were slain during 1992 in Oxnard, up considerably from the average of 10.4 per year since 1985, said Sgt. Charles Dunham, who supervises the city’s homicide detectives.

“For the most part, they’re crimes of passion, and you really can’t predict that sort of thing,” Dunham said recently.

Homicides in Oxnard were reported at an average rate until late November, when eight people were slain within a two-week period--beginning with the drug-related shooting of 33-year-old roofer Ramiro Mendoza on Nov. 27 and ending with the Dec. 10 death of Vincente Martinez Montanez, 21, found shot to death in an Oxnard alley.

Police have arrested Celestine Camacho and Juan Rojelio, both 18, on suspicion of slaying Mendoza. Montanez’s killer remains at large.

“There’s no explanation when it comes to homicides, unless you have a mass murder or something like that--and I pray we never do,” Dunham said. “It was just time, I guess, for us to be inundated with those kinds of crimes.”

He echoed a sentiment voiced by many law enforcement officials--that there is little society can do to stop people from killing each other.

“Most of them usually tend to deal with either someone that they have made angry or someone they’ve come across who gets in their way, or a deal gone bad,” said Lt. Kathy Kemp, chief of the sheriff’s major crimes unit. “It’s not usually someone who shoots someone out of the clear, blue sky.”

While the motives in many of 1992’s homicides were clear, police say they are still stymied by the Feb. 24 slaying of Yasuo Kato.

The 49-year-old Japanese businessman was found on the floor of his garage in Camarillo, stabbed twice in the heart. Nearby lay the jagged, eight-inch hunting knife used to kill Kato, a martial-arts champion who was found with no blood on his hands, indicating he did not even have time to touch his wounds before collapsing.

Theories on a motive in the slaying ran rampant: anti-Japanese thugs carrying out a death threat; the Yakuza, as Japanese organized crime is known, collecting on old debts; someone close to him, or a total stranger.

Detectives lately have edged toward the theory that it was a professional hit, but Kato’s death remains unsolved as investigators in Japan and the United States continue to run down leads and hope for a breakthrough.

The slaying of 90-year-old Velasta Johnson was among the year’s most controversial killings.

Johnson died of a single stab wound to the heart Jan. 17, killed by Kevin Jon Kolodziej, a mentally ill drifter who had walked away from the county hospital while awaiting psychiatric commitment. Kolodziej, 26, was sentenced to 16 years to life in a prison psychiatric facility.

Johnson’s death widowed her husband of 64 years, Clyde Johnson, and spurred her family to sue the hospital and Ventura police, who had encountered Kolodziej wandering in hospital pajamas and let him go just moments before the slaying.

Another controversial death was that of Malibu-area rancher Donald P. Scott, 61, shot by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies during a drug raid Oct. 2.

When deputies burst into Scott’s home, he confronted them with a .38-caliber revolver, held overhead. When he began to lower his arm, they killed him.

A preliminary review by Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury’s office concluded that the shooting was justifiable because Scott threatened police, but Bradury said he still has concerns about the raid. Prosecutors are expected to report on their continuing investigation this month.

Other killings in Ventura County in 1992 were less mysterious, but no less tragic:

* Francisco Cortez Ortega, 28, was stabbed to death in the 200 block of West Elm Street in Oxnard on Jan. 9 in a melee with four other men that followed a drinking binge. The district attorney has not charged anyone in the case.

* The body of Genovinia Gonzalez, 30, a single mother of four young children, was found in a 5-foot-deep ditch in Oxnard on Jan. 26. She had been raped and shot several times in the head. Sheriff’s detectives are trying to piece together the last six hours of her life for clues that could lead to her killer.

* Marco Antonio Scott, 27, was reported missing in 1988. Hikers found his skeleton Feb. 24 in a shallow grave in a Simi Valley ravine, two bullet holes in the skull. Luis R. Benavidez, 39, was indicted by the Ventura County grand jury, but found not guilty by a jury.

* Timothy Moss, 17, showed up at a Ventura Avenue area party on Feb. 28 carrying a 9-millimeter pistol and got into a loud argument with other party-goers. Shots were fired, and Moss burst into the kitchen with the pistol cocked, pointing at Stanislado Gomez, 25. Gomez told others in the kitchen to get down, then fired four bullets into Moss, killing him. Prosecutors declined to prosecute, ruling that Gomez had shot in self-defense.

* Bad blood between Manuel Albis, 21 and Robert Truitt, 19, both of Oxnard, boiled over on March 19 outside a convenience store. The two exchanged heated words, and Truitt shot Albis to death. Truitt was sentenced Dec. 3 to 29 years to life in prison for first-degree murder and using a gun.

* Pedro (Flipper) Cardona Gomez, 35, whom Oxnard police said had “a background of violent crime and narcotics usage” was found shot to death March 22 in La Colonia. The district attorney has not charged anyone in the case.

* Manuel Venegas Luna, 7, died of a ruptured intestine April 8, several days after reportedly being punched in the stomach by his 12-year-old stepbrother in Oxnard. The older boy was not prosecuted.

* Jose Delgado, 26, was shot to death during a family dispute April 19 in Oxnard. The man identified by witnesses as the gunman has not been arrested, and authorities are still investigating.

* Michael Anthony Floyd, 32, was found dead on the kitchen floor of an Oxnard apartment April 25 after a heated argument with his nephew. Floyd had been shot to death. No one has been prosecuted in the case.

* Jose Navarro, 16, may have used a baseball bat to smash the windows on a Volkswagen belonging to Jesse Conchas, then 17, a former Ventura High School track star. Believing this was true, Conchas chased Navarro from Camino Real Park in Ventura on May 3 and fatally stabbed him in the neck. Conchas, now 18, pleaded guilty to adult charges of second-degree murder in October and is to be sentenced Jan. 6 in Superior Court.

* Jesus Garcia Sr., 49, died in his sleep May 25, stabbed to death by his 31-year-old son, Jesus Garcia Jr. Diagnosed seven years ago as paranoid schizophrenic, the younger Garcia was ruled not guilty by reason of insanity Oct. 1 by Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch, who ordered him committed indefinitely to a state mental institution.

* Kimberly Haddock, 28, was shot to death June 12 in El Rio by her former lover, Raymond Duran, 32, who then put a bullet into his own head and died 30 minutes later. “We can only surmise that it had something to do with (her) trying to get her marriage back together and rejecting him,” one investigator said.

* Kirk Krcmar, 37, was slain in a murder-suicide June 22 by his girlfriend’s ex-husband, retired Los Angeles Police Officer Jon Gregory Pearce, 39, who then shot himself to death while Pearce’s children watched.

* James Graham, 38, an emotionally disturbed homeless man, was shot and killed by Oxnard Police Officer James O’Brien on Aug. 3 as he reportedly crashed his car into one of two police cars chasing him. Prosecutors did not charge O’Brien, ruling that he had fired his weapon in self-defense.

* On Aug. 8, Noguo (Bill) Yeto, 81, of Ventura shot his wife, Miyeko Yeto, 82, in the head with a .32-caliber revolver, then killed himself. Investigators said the couple were suffering from ill health.

* Gaston Zarate, 24, a Mexican transient who was living in this country under the name Filemon Gonzales, was found dead in Thousand Oaks, propped in the front seat of the 1977 Monte Carlo he lived in. Someone had walked up and shot him. Sheriff’s deputies have no substantial leads in the case, Kemp said.

* Richard Gutierrez, 20, a member of the Bad Boys gang, died in a drive-by shooting in Santa Paula on Sept. 23. No arrest has been made.

* A drive-by shooting on Halloween claimed the life of Jose Lara, 19, a member of the Crazy Boyz, a rival gang. Although the two gangs had been feuding, police say the slayings are not connected. Santa Paula police arrested John Julian Lopez, 19, in connection with Lara’s death but then released him because witnesses were reluctant to say anything about either death, Sgt. Gary Marshall said. Police are still investigating both slayings.

* Osiel Ponce, a 37-year-old field worker, left his house Oct. 19 worried--police speculate--that he was in danger because the five kilos of cocaine he was selling for someone else had been seized before he could be paid. A few hours later, he was found shot to death in his car in Durley Park, sitting next to a court document outlining the seizure. No arrests have been made.

* Jose Villafuerte Flores, 25, was driving to work in the exclusive Lexington Hills development north of Thousand Oaks on Nov. 13 when four men approached in a red car and blocked his path. One got out and shot Flores several times in the chest, killing him. Sheriff’s detectives are still investigating.

* Someone beat Feliz Ruiz Martinez, 51, to death in an orange orchard where he had been drinking for several hours Nov. 25. Police have not recovered the blunt object used to smash his skull, and the investigation is continuing.

* On Nov. 29, Victor Miramontes, 36, of Oxnard suffered blows to the head in a fight. He went home and died several hours later. There have been no arrests.

* On the morning of Nov. 30, 42-year-old Regina Lewis, despondent over her impending divorce, parked her car in the Oxnard Shores area and shot herself to death. Her 17-year-old son, a former Oxnard High running back, heard she had died. Believing his mother had been killed by his stepfather, the youth then shot the man, Walter Bell, 43, as he entered the family’s condo. The youth pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and is to be sentenced Jan. 22 in juvenile court.

* Richard Schell, 53, a Santa Barbara landlord, was collecting rent from Port Hueneme tenants Dec. 1 when he was fatally shot in the heart. The Ventura County grand jury has indicted three Oxnard men on charges of murder, and a 16-year-old boy also faces charges in the case.

* On Dec. 2, 17-year-old Mark Estrada of Oxnard and another youth tried to rob an Oxnard convenience store. Store owner T. Roman Paras shot Estrada to death during an exchange of gunfire, and Estrada’s alleged accomplice is facing charges of murder, attempted murder and attempted robbery in juvenile court.

* A manager at the Flamingo Motel in Oxnard opened the door of a room there on Dec. 4 to find the bodies of Rosendo Vargas, 39, and Arturo Ramirez. Each had been slashed in the neck. Police are still investigating.