Man Gets Life in Prison in Killing : Crime: The Oxnard gang member, 20, receives the maximum penalty. Landlord Richard Schell was gunned down as he counted his rent receipts.

An admitted Oxnard gang member who dropped out of high school in the 11th grade was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without parole for his part in a fatal shooting in Port Hueneme--a case in which the alleged actual gunman was acquitted after an earlier trial.

Jose Luis Arreguin, 20, received the maximum penalty for the December killing of Port Hueneme landlord Richard Schell, who was shot to death as he counted rent receipts in his parked car.

“As terrible as this crime is . . . he had no intent to hurt anyone,” said defense attorney Willard P. Wiksell in asking for a new trial. “He was a last-minute addition to this planned robbery.”

But Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath denied Wiksell’s motion for another trial, saying that evidence presented at Arreguin’s trial last month was sufficient to prove a guilty verdict.

Prosecutors alleged that Arreguin and three others stalked Schell for several blocks Dec. 1 as the landlord made his monthly rounds to collect his rent. Schell was a 55-year-old Santa Barbara resident who owned numerous apartment buildings in Oxnard and Port Hueneme.

Jorge Pena, 23; David Lee Soto, 20, and Gilbert Martinez, 16, joined Arreguin the evening of the robbery in following Schell to a remote stretch of B Street in Port Hueneme where they could rob him, Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn said.

Pena planned the robbery, and went so far as trying to rob Schell a month earlier before losing the landlord in traffic, according to trial testimony. When Pena again pursued the robbery Dec. 1, Arreguin and Martinez, who had a .45-caliber handgun, were brought in, Glynn told jurors.

Pena waited in the car as the others carried out the plan, Arreguin said at his trial. Schell was killed by a single gunshot that pierced his heart after attempting to drive away from the would-be robbers, Glynn said.

The four men fled without any money after the shooting.

Arreguin was convicted in June of first-degree murder for his part in the crime. He testified that he only wanted a ride to Camarillo from the others and did not know about the plan to rob Schell.

Arreguin was the first of the defendants to be tried. After his trial, Martinez was tried separately and ultimately acquitted of murder.

Martinez, who was identified by investigators as the gunman because of a fingerprint on the driver’s door of Schell’s car, testified during his trial that Arreguin did the actual shooting. Although jurors found him not guilty of murder June 28, they found him guilty of attempted robbery. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 3.

Soto has already pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and agreed to testify against the others in exchange for a lighter sentence to be imposed after all other defendants have been tried. Pena is scheduled for trial Aug. 2.

In arguing for a new trial for Arreguin, Wiksell noted that his client was not accused of being the actual gunman in his trial. Wiksell also contended that the other defendants in the case were “looking to put the blame on Mr. Arreguin” to minimize their own guilt.

Outside court, Wiksell called Martinez “a very lucky individual” for escaping a murder conviction, but said he held no grudge. “It was another trial, a different jury. I can only worry about the cases I have,” he said.

McGrath sentenced Arreguin to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an extra year for a special allegation that he used a gun. A three-year prison term for the attempted robbery charge was stayed by the judge.

Arreguin has been involved with the “Southside Chiques” street gang for several years and regularly used cocaine, LSD and marijuana, according to his pre-sentencing report.

He told investigators that he never planned to rob or kill anyone.

“I feel sorry for the dude (Schell) and his wife, but there was nothing I could do,” the report states. “It was already happening when I got there.”