OXNARD : Lawyer Says Dispute Led to Fatal Shooting

A defense attorney said Friday that a 24-year-old Oxnard man was shot to death in September because of a dispute over the cash from a robbery he helped plan.

Hector Garcia, 22, of Oxnard is accused of fatally shooting Michael Wayne Mansir near Channel Islands Harbor and robbing a large Oxnard grocery store of $187,000.

In a document presented to the court Friday in a preliminary hearing in the case, Deputy Public Defender Richard E. Holly said Mansir helped plan the robbery of Smith’s Food & Drug Center 10 days before his death.

Holly also said Mansir was shot by Garcia in self-defense after “terrorizing” the defendant’s wife and child.

Eight witnesses testified at the preliminary hearing but it was continued until Tuesday.

A prosecution witness, David Lutizetti, who was working as an assistant manager in Smith’s at the time of the robbery, testified that Garcia held up the store and took him hostage.

Lutizetti said he escaped by jumping from the car Garcia was driving on the Ventura Freeway near Victoria Avenue.

Holly acknowledged that his client took part in the Sept. 19 Smith’s robbery.

In the court document, Holly said Mansir was a mastermind in the robbery and provoked a fight with Garcia because Mansir was not satisfied with his take from the holdup.

The day of the shooting, he said, Mansir kidnaped, assaulted and threatened Garcia’s wife, Malai MacDonald, and their 3-year-old daughter, Paulina. Mansir was shot in self-defense by Garcia, who was protesting the treatment of his wife and daughter, the document said.