VENTURA : 2 Men Charged in Murder Case

Two Ventura men have been charged with killing a 36-year-old man who died a day after being beaten and robbed of $15, prosecutors said Friday.

Everado Mondragon, 35, who at first gave police the name Carlos Tapia Garcia, and Jose Sanchez, 24, were arrested last Sunday on suspicion of mugging Thomas Edward Shoop of Ventura near the corner of Harrison and Olive streets in Ventura.

Shoop identified the men and told police the attack occurred after the pair offered to sell him cocaine. At the time of their arrests, officers found $10 in Sanchez’s pocket and $5 in Mondragon’s, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Terence M. Kilbride.

Mondragon and Sanchez appeared Friday in Ventura County Municipal Court for an arraignment, but the proceeding was postponed until March 9. Judge Bruce A. Clarke set bail at $250,000 each. They are believed to be illegal immigrants and are under investigation by the U.S. Border Patrol, Kilbride said.

The district attorney’s office on Friday charged both men with murder and robbery. Mondragon has also been charged with selling cocaine and failing to appear in court.

Mondragon was arrested in November for allegedly selling cocaine to an undercover officer. He failed to appear in court in January for that case, and a warrant was issued for his arrest, Kilbride said.

A man selling newspaper subscriptions discovered Shoop’s body Monday. The man had knocked on the front door of Shoop’s home and--through a window--saw a body on the floor inside. When he pounded harder on the door, it opened.

“He went in and found the guy wasn’t breathing, so he ran out and called 911,” Kilbride said.

Shoop died of a ruptured spleen, although there were no external signs of the fatal blow, coroner’s officials said. He had refused medical treatment after the beating.