1 Suspect Confessed to Killing Ventura Restaurateur, Officer Testifies

One of three men accused of murdering 35-year-old Felipe Arambula admitted in a police interview to gunning down the popular Ventura restaurant owner during a bungled kidnapping attempt last summer, a police officer testified Thursday.

Two months after Arambula was fatally shot in the bedroom of his home in an upscale Ventura neighborhood, 19-year-old William David Hampton confessed to police that he was the one who fired the deadly shots, according to the detective who interviewed him.

But Hampton repeatedly told authorities that he never intended to hurt the man, and only fired the gun when Arambula came after him with a chair, the officer testified.

“The plan was just to scare the victim,” said Ventura Police Det. Terri Vujea.

Arambula, owner of the Taqueria Vallarta restaurant in downtown Ventura, died after being shot six times while in the bedroom of his Monte Vista Avenue home on the night of June 13. One shot pierced his heart, authorities said.

Two men--Hampton and 37-year-old Jose Alberto Vazquez--have been charged with murder, attempted kidnapping, burglary and other crimes. Both have pleaded not guilty. A third suspect, 20-year-old Manuel Vasquez, is believed to have fled the country.

On Thursday, prosecutors presented the first pieces of a complex puzzle during a preliminary hearing for Hampton and Jose Vazquez, the alleged mastermind in the robbery-slaying. They began by calling law enforcement officers who investigated the shooting.

According to the officers’ testimony and the statements of other witnesses, Jose Vazquez, co-owner of the Player’s Poker Club on Ventura Avenue, approached Manuel Vasquez months before the slaying to ask if he would help kidnap a man who owed him money.

A deal was allegedly negotiated, and Manuel Vasquez set out to find a cohort to help him with the job. That led him to Hampton, according to court testimony.

Eric Gonzalez, a friend of Manuel Vasquez, testified that his buddy approached him at one point and asked if he could obtain a gun. Gonzalez said he refused.

But Gonzalez did go out with his friend to drink beer on the night of the slaying, and told authorities that Manuel Vasquez was with someone who had agreed to help “do a job.” That man was Hampton, he said.

That account was corroborated by Vujea’s testimony about her interview with Hampton, who confessed that he was lured by the prospect of earning $10,000 to $20,000 for participating in a kidnapping scheme.

Hampton told Vujea that two weeks before the slaying Manuel Vasquez showed him a box of supplies they would use during the kidnapping, including rope, tape, a stun gun, latex gloves and a 9-millimeter handgun, Vujea said.

According to Vujea’s testimony:

On the night of the slaying, Hampton and Vasquez slipped into Arambula’s home through an open window. Hampton told her that he was surprised to find Arambula’s wife, Yazmin, and two small children in the house.

Hampton said he was guarding the wife in a child’s bedroom when the restaurant owner came home from work around 10 p.m. From the doorway, Hampton heard his partner confront Arambula. A fight broke out and Hampton ran toward the kitchen. There, he saw the victim beating up Manuel Vasquez.

Hampton told authorities that he was carrying the stun gun while Manuel Vasquez had the pistol. When he saw Arambula on top of his partner on the kitchen floor, Hampton zapped him twice with the stun gun and then ran back to where he had left Arambula’s wife, but she had left the room.

Vujea said Hampton turned to find his accomplice being threatened by Arambula, who was wielding a chair at the intruders. Vasquez and Hampton backed up as Arambula advanced on them. When they reached the master bedroom, Hampton grabbed the handgun his partner had apparently dropped and shot Arambula, Vujea said. The pair then fled on foot to a nearby car.

“Manuel was worried about what happened and suggested they go to Mexico,” Vujea testified. Instead, Hampton fled to Texas, where he was later arrested.

On cross-examination, Vujea said that Hampton repeatedly told her during their interview: “No one was supposed to get hurt.”

During the attack, Yazmin Arambula darted from a bedroom where the intruders were holding her hostage and grabbed a phone in her husband’s office. As she dialed 911, she heard shots, according to district attorney investigator Richard Haas, who interviewed the wife after the shooting.

Haas testified that Yazmin Arambula was coaxing her son to sleep shortly before 10 p.m. when she heard voices in the house. From the doorway of her son’s room, she saw the figure of a man, whom she later identified as Hampton.

According to Haas, Hampton told Yazmin Arambula they were looking for her husband because he owed someone money.

On cross-examination, defense attorneys posed questions about the Arambulas’ financial situation.

Haas told them that Yazmin Arambula knew almost nothing of her husband’s business dealings. At one point, she told Haas that she questioned her husband’s persistence in buying the Monte Vista home. She also told him she believed her husband had “kept her in the dark” about their finances, Haas said.

In searching the property after the shooting, detectives found a cellular phone lying in the yard. Phone records showed that it belonged to Manuel Vasquez’s mother, and three outgoing calls were made the night of the killing to a cellular phone owned by the wife of Jose Vazquez, Monica Donahoo. The calls were made shortly before 10 p.m.

A second investigator testified that Jose Vazquez bought three airline tickets before the shooting. One was for Hampton to fly to San Antonio on June 25. The other two tickets were for Vazquez and his wife to leave the same day for Mexico City.

After the shooting, Yazmin Arambula told authorities that she didn’t know any of the suspects. But she later called Haas after stumbling upon a business card among her husband’s belongings. The card belonged to Henry “Pinky” Donahoo, the late husband of Jose Vazquez’s wife. On the back of the card were two telephone numbers and the name “Monica.”