NEWBURY PARK : Plea Bargain Rejected in Fatal Shooting

A Newbury Park man accused of shooting his sister’s boyfriend to death while 911 operators listened on the telephone refused an offer to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter, attorneys said Thursday.

Todd Richard Love, 27, was arrested June 20 after officers responding to the emergency call on San Marcos Court found 31-year-old Frank Kish dead from several gunshot wounds.

A jury trial on a charge of murder was scheduled to begin next week, but Deputy Public Defender Robert A. Dahlstedt on Thursday was granted a seven-week continuance. Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael K. Frawley opposed any delay in the case, but Ventura County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch ruled in favor of the defense.

Frawley, who said last month that he would pursue a first-degree murder charge against Love, said Thursday that he had offered a plea of voluntary manslaughter. But Dahlstedt said Love wants his day in court.

“It’s a self-defense case,” Dahlstedt said.

Love lived in the same home with his sister, Kish and the woman’s two children. Frawley said he expects to call both the 11-year-old and the 13-year-old to the witness stand during the jury trial.

“They heard what preceded the fight and they heard the gunshots,” Frawley said. “I don’t want to ask them to testify, but I have no choice.”

Also on Thursday, Storch lowered Love’s bail from $250,000 to $125,000. The murder trial is now scheduled for Nov. 8.