Simi Man Found Guilty in Shooting of Neighbor

Rejecting claims of self-defense, a Ventura County jury on Friday found a 27-year-old Simi Valley man guilty of first-degree murder for shooting his next-door neighbor to death during a fight late last year.

Deliberating a day and a half, the panel of five women and seven men decided that Christopher Harbridge’s story that he feared for his life was inconsistent with the facts of the case and other witness accounts.

As each juror was polled by Superior Court Judge Vincent O’Neill about his or her vote, Harbridge turned to face his family seated a few feet away in the courtroom gallery.

For more than a minute, he held their gazes and watched them cry.

Then, after the jury was dismissed, Harbridge turned to the relatives of victim Ronald Rowe and made two obscene gestures with each hand as he was led back to a holding cell.

The Rowe family looked away, and Harbridge smiled wryly as deputies escorted him out of court.

Outside the courtroom, John Rowe Sr., the victim’s father, said he was not surprised by Harbridge’s actions.

“It’s typical, very typical,” said Rowe, who also lives in Simi Valley. “The last three years have been like this. It’s finally come to an end.”

Harbridge and Ronald Rowe had been engaged in a long-standing dispute that erupted on the morning of Dec. 5, when after a verbal fight Harbridge shot and killed Rowe in his frontyard, according to court testimony.

Harbridge claimed the shooting was in self-defense after Rowe sprayed him in the back of the head with pepper spray.

But John Rowe Sr., who watched the shooting, testified that Harbridge lured his 30-year-old son out of the house with the intent to kill.

“I just feel like this has restored my faith in justice,” the father said after the verdict was announced. “I will probably make it my life’s work to see that he stays incarcerated. It is the least I can do for my son.”

Crying outside the courtroom, Daniel Rowe, 31, and John Rowe Jr., 34, thanked the prosecutor and told reporters that the verdict would help them begin to deal with the loss of their brother.

“It is not exactly closure,” John Rowe Jr. said. “It’s a good start for us. We are going to try to go on with our lives and do the best we can.”

Later in the day, John Rowe Sr. returned to a different Ventura courtroom to seek a restraining order against Harbridge’s father. Rowe said he was concerned for his family’s safety after John Harbridge, a retired Los Angeles police officer, angrily approached him in the courthouse parking lot.

Rowe said that the father was blaming him for his son’s murder conviction. Rowe was one of the prosecution’s key witnesses during the trial.

Christopher Harbridge, a former Moorpark College student, now faces a minimum sentence of 25 years to life in prison, which could be extended by up to 10 years because the jury also found him guilty of using a firearm during the killing.

Harbridge’s attorney said he plans to appeal the decision, which he believes is entirely too harsh.

“There will definitely be an appeal,” attorney James Goldstein said. “I was very disappointed in the verdict. I felt this was self-defense.”

Goldstein said a verdict of manslaughter would have been reasonable, but first-degree murder was not a just ruling in a case where the defendant had been assaulted and threatened with violence.

“It was obvious Christopher was being assaulted at the time with pepper spray,” the Van Nuys-based attorney said. “I felt he was within his rights to use deadly force. If he had been disarmed, then this person was very dangerous and may well have used the gun on him.”

As to the gestures his client made after the verdict was read, Goldstein said he did not see it, but said: “That was inappropriate.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. James Ellison said the gesture was to be expected.

“To me, that just shows who Christopher Harbridge is,” Ellison said. “And it shows that he has shown no remorse for what he did.”

Ellison interviewed several jurors after they returned the verdict. He said they told him that they did not believe Harbridge’s account of what happened after comparing his version of the shooting to evidence in the case.

“Every time they tried to compare what Christopher Harbridge was saying, he was lying,” Ellison said. “They just decided that he was incredible.”

A sentencing hearing is set for April 18.