Stepfather’s Killer Faces New Charges

An 18-year-old Oxnard man on probation for killing his stepfather last year will be arraigned today on four misdemeanor charges of possessing loaded handguns and other deadly weapons, an attorney said Thursday.

John Joseph Lewis, who fatally shot Walter Bell in November after mistakenly believing that Bell was responsible for his mother’s death, was arrested by Ventura County sheriff’s deputies after he and another man were found along Pacific Coast Highway with two guns and two clubs, officials said.

If found to have violated probation, Lewis could be jailed in Juvenile Hall or the California Youth Authority for the slaying.

“We’re going to file two charges involving possession of a loaded handgun in a vehicle and possession of a billy club and a sap,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald M. Grant. A sap is a leather-bound metal rod, Grant said.

Lewis and Gregory Wells, 20, also of Oxnard, were arrested early Wednesday after a patrolling deputy stopped to investigate an illegally parked car and discovered the two men with the weapons and two ski masks.

They were arrested on suspicion of attempted armed robbery. Deputies believe they were preparing to rob a Newbury Park couple sleeping on the beach about half a mile south of Sycamore Canyon, officials said.

“I read the police reports and it was my opinion we couldn’t prove that (attempted robbery) charge,” said Grant, who identified the firearms as a .44-magnum revolver and a .45-caliber pistol.

Grant said he did not know where Lewis and Wells obtained the weapons, but said that “there’s nothing in the report to indicate the guns were stolen.”

Lewis is being held at County Jail without bail because he is on juvenile probation. Wells’ bail was set at $20,000.

The misdemeanor case against Lewis will be handled in Municipal Court, but proceedings related to any violation of his juvenile probation will be handled out of public view in juvenile court, Grant said.

Lewis’ 42-year-old mother, Regina, who had been estranged from Bell for three years, was found dead in a car parked at Oxnard Shores on Nov. 30. Investigators ruled that she died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.

But Lewis was informed by his grandmother only that his mother was found shot to death and he incorrectly assumed his estranged stepfather had killed her. He shot Bell within moments of his arrival at the family condominium.

Then a 17-year-old Oxnard High School football star, Lewis was sentenced in January to 60 days in jail and placed on juvenile probation for the voluntary manslaughter conviction.

Juvenile court Judge Robert C. Bradley granted Lewis probation after Deputy Public Defender Howard J. Asher argued for a lenient sentence. Asher said that Lewis mistakenly blamed his stepfather for his mother’s suicide.

On Thursday, Bradley stood by his decision to offer Lewis probation. “The fact that it was a juvenile matter would warrant probation,” Bradley said. “No one, not even the district attorney, thought this young man belonged in (juvenile prison) based on his background.

“It was the right decision then, and I’d do it all over again,” Bradley said.

Lewis had been living with his grandmother, Iantha Jones, before he was arrested. She said he voluntarily sought counseling to cope with the death of his mother and stepfather but had recently stopped.

“He seemed to be doing very well” since the deaths, Jones said. “He was doing well in school at Oxnard College. He was a business major.”

Lewis declined to be interviewed, a jail official said.

Jones said she had “no idea” where Lewis would get any guns, adding that she knows Wells “vaguely” but was unaware the two men had weapons or may have planned crimes.

A new conviction would mean that Lewis violated terms of his juvenile probation, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Patricia J. Kelliher, who supervises juvenile cases.

Kelliher said adults who violate juvenile probation can be sentenced to Juvenile Hall or the California Youth Authority.

“Anything could happen,” she said. “The considerations are totally different (from adults) because in juvenile court you’re looking at rehabilitation.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Randall Thomas said Lewis was arraigned Thursday in juvenile court, but he declined to specify the proceeding because of the privacy of juvenile probation cases.

Grant said penalties for the misdemeanor charges are one year in County Jail, a commitment to the youth authority if the defendant is under 21, or probation.