OXNARD : Victim’s Girlfriend Describes Slaying

The girlfriend of an Oxnard drug dealer told a judge Monday that two men kicked in her door and shot her boyfriend to death during a botched robbery.

After hearing the testimony, Municipal Judge John E. Dobroth ordered a 25-year-old gang member who was charged in the case to stand trial for murder.

The girlfriend, Aura Moss, said she did not know the defendant, Joseph Samuel, who was arrested several hours after the slaying.

But she said that Joseph Samuel’s cousin, Chris Samuel, frequently purchased cocaine from the shooting victim, Anthony Pech, 24.

She also said that one of the assailants was black, over six feet tall, and 200 pounds--a description that matches Joseph Samuel.

Pech was shot March 22 after two intruders burst through the door of his home in the 1800 block of Helm Drive in a quiet, middle-class neighborhood near Channel Islands Harbor. Witnesses in the three-day preliminary hearing have testified that Joseph and Chris Samuel went to Pech’s house to rob the victim. Chris Samuel has not been charged in the case, but a prosecutor said the slaying is still being investigated.

Eddie Makholm, 24, a longtime gang member testifying under a grant of immunity, said he accompanied the Samuel cousins to the murder scene but did not go inside. After the shooting, Joseph Samuel admitted shooting Pech because the victim appeared to have a gun of his own, Makholm, testified.

Moss testified Monday that Pech jumped out of bed after the break-in, saw two men coming through their front door and was reaching for his own shotgun when he was shot once in the face.

Moss said she never got a direct look at his attackers but saw their profiles in a mirror. She said she was trying to hide after her boyfriend was shot.

“I was worried about my life, getting shot also,” said Moss, who was also given immunity for her testimony.