Suspect in Deputy’s Killing Pleads Not Guilty

As a former drug counselor pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that he killed a Ventura County sheriff’s deputy, sources close to the case revealed that the deputy was shot in the head at point-blank range.

Michael Raymond Johnson, 48, pleaded not guilty to murder and four other charges in the July 17 slaying of Deputy Peter J. Aguirre Jr. at the home of Johnson’s estranged wife in Meiners Oaks.

Sheriff Larry Carpenter has asked prosecutors to seek the death penalty.

Johnson stood Friday in Municipal Court wearing jailhouse blues, with hands clasped meekly before him, flanked by four sheriff’s deputies. Asked by Judge John R. Smiley whether he would waive his rights to a speedy trial so a preliminary hearing can be set for Sept. 16, he answered quietly, “Yes.”

But Johnson’s case will likely bypass the hearing needed to send it to Superior Court for trial and go instead to a Ventura County grand jury, sources close to the investigation said.

Aguirre was shot to death as he walked into the Johnson house with gun still holstered to investigate a complaint of a domestic fight.

Forensic evidence shows Johnson shot the deputy twice from several yards away, then walked over and shot him once in the head point-blank as he lay wounded on the floor, sources close to the investigation told The Times.

The theory is supported by Aguirre’s wounds and by two batches of shell casings: Some were found in the house’s bathroom, where Johnson emerged from the shower, while one more was found by Aguirre’s body near the front door, the sources said.

Carpenter said Friday that Johnson shot Aguirre at least once at close range. But he declined to elaborate, saying he did not want to impede the district attorney’s case.

“The tendency is for the public to think that if you catch the guy and you have the gun and you have the shell casings, it’s a cinch case,” Carpenter said in an interview. “And there’s no such thing as a cinch case in our criminal justice system anymore. Just look at the O.J. Simpson case.”

Carpenter and four of his top commanders watched Johnson’s arraignment in Municipal Court on Friday, sitting in the audience behind Aguirre’s parents, sisters and other family and friends.

“He killed not only a deputy sheriff who was just doing his job but a representative of you and the people,” Carpenter told reporters afterward. “I would encourage anyone interested in the criminal justice system to follow this case very closely.”

Johnson’s own attorney admitted Friday that her client shot Aguirre to death.

“I don’t think there’s any question of that,” said Deputy Public Defender Christina Briles.

But Briles said there may be evidence that Johnson was suffering the recurrence of an old psychiatric illness at the time, triggered by the stress of his recent attempts to reconcile with his estranged wife.

“Even a layman can see that a man that walks out naked shooting with two guns in his hands has something wrong with him,” Briles said.

“Whether or not it’s a defense is something we’ve got to determine,” she said. “We didn’t enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, but we’re not foreclosing the possibility of that.”

Johnson was despondent after the shooting, but he has since been removed from suicide watch at the County Jail, she said.

He remains under constant observation in the jail’s medical ward, where he is being treated for a wound caused when Aguirre’s partner shot him through the lung, she said.

Johnson is being held without bail.

Briles said she is considering asking that Johnson’s trial be moved to another jurisdiction. Heavy local publicity surrounding Aguirre’s death and the slayings of California Highway Patrolman Don J. Burt last month and Simi Valley Police Officer Michael F. Clark last August could influence the jury pool, she said.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Frawley said he will fight any bid for a change of venue.

“It belongs here,” he said. “The people of this community are the ones who have a right to decide [Johnson’s] guilt or innocence and his fate, and this is where the crime happened.” What’s more, Frawley said, it would cost taxpayers too much in transportation and hotel fees for witnesses and lawyers to move the trial to another county.

As for an insanity plea, Frawley said: “In every murder case I’ve ever done, I always hear about all the mental problems the defendant had. And it’s almost as if you could take a tape and play the defense attorneys’ comments every time they’re asked about whether their client did it and why he did it.”

The Aguirre shooting adds another bulky case to the already heavy load being carried by the district attorney’s office:

* Daniel Allan Tuffree’s death penalty trial is proceeding in Clark’s slaying.

* Alfred Pohlmeier is awaiting trial on charges he strangled his elderly wife in Santa Paula.

* Christopher Samuel is on trial for murder in the shotgun slaying of Oxnard resident Anthony Pech.

* Joaquin “Jack” Ayala Jr. is awaiting sentencing for the shotgun slaying of a neighbor in Oxnard.

* John Charles Alvez is awaiting trial in the slaying of Moorpark butcher shop employee Marco Aurelio Rodriguez.

* Arturo Contreras is to face trial for murder charges in the shooting death of Moorpark motorist Jesus Zamudio Manjarrez.

* Victor Aguilar and a 15-year-old Oxnard youth face murder charges in the shooting of 16-year-old Felipe Hernandez at Oxnard’s Centerpoint Mall.

* Grocery clerk Diana Haun was charged Friday with the slaying of Ventura homemaker Sherri Dally.

* And Alan Holland was arrested Thursday in the carjack slaying of Ventura resident Mildred Wilson.

Cases that carry the death penalty--as the Johnson case might--put an extra burden of research time on the office.

The office has added trial deputies to its major crimes division, which now has at least nine deputies trying or preparing murder cases, said Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Holmes.

“We have had to engage in some reorganization within the office,” said Ron Janes, head of the major crimes division. “There is no doubt that the entire office is feeling the strain of not only these cases but . . . an increase in the workload across the board here.”