CAMARILLO : Ventura Man Sought in Death of Trucker

Sheriff’s deputies were searching Wednesday for a Ventura man suspected of driving the car that struck and fatally injured a coast-to-coast truck driver who was crossing a Camarillo street to ask for directions, authorities said.

Marco Antonio Luis-Guarneros, 22, was being sought for questioning about the hit-and-run accident Tuesday night in which Robert E. Sullins of Pawnee, Okla., was struck in view of diners at El Tecolote restaurant, Deputy Jim Wade said.

Sullins, 65, whose wife had been waiting in the driver’s seat of the idling refrigeration truck, died at 10:10 a.m. Wednesday at St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo, Deputy Coroner Mitch Breese said.

The 1982 Buick Regal, which deputies said Luis-Guarneros had borrowed from his 26-year-old brother in Ventura, did not stop after the accident at Lewis Road and Barry Street and was abandoned on nearby Durkin Street, Sgt. Mike Lewis said.

In the car with Luis-Guarneros, Wade said, were two men and a woman who work with him at a car-stereo manufacturer in Camarillo. Deputies questioned them but gave no details.

Before the accident, Sullins and his wife, Mary, 64, had picked up a load of green onions near Oxnard and had parked their truck and its 48-foot trailer on northbound Lewis Road across from El Tecolote, authorities said.

Debbie Meeks, 40, head waitress at the restaurant, said about 30 people were there, including children, when Sullins was struck and thrown into the air.

Ironically, Wade said, Sullins had sought directions to the Ventura Freeway, which his truck had just passed under.