Suspect Named in West Hills Ambush Shooting

Police have identified a suspect in last week’s execution-style slaying of a man who was allegedly killed to silence his anticipated testimony in a Van Nuys courtroom later this month.

Randall Bruce Williams, 34, is suspected of fatally shooting Jamie Edward Navaroli, 36, and seriously injuring Navaroli’s girlfriend in a Nov. 4 ambush outside the couple’s Ingomar Street home, Los Angeles police said.

Navaroli had been placed in a witness protection program after receiving death threats for his expected testimony in a case involving a series of commercial burglaries last summer in the West Valley.

Williams, named by police as the trigger man, was a suspect in the burglaries but was never charged, said Det. Rick Swanston of the LAPD’s West Valley Division.

The man charged in the burglaries, Kenneth Leighton, is a close friend of Williams, police said. Authorities said Leighton was also charged with intimidating Navaroli.

“Don’t you know I can have you killed?” one source quoted Leighton as saying to Navaroli after learning Navaroli was cooperating with police.

Swanston said Leighton has not been eliminated as a possible co-conspirator in Navaroli’s killing. Leighton, who pleaded not guilty to both charges and is free on bail, could not be reached for comment.

His lawyer, Ron Lewis, denied Leighton had threatened Navaroli and said Leighton was a friend of Williams’.

“My client is a family man with two small children,” Lewis said. “It doesn’t make sense to me that he would take a burglary case, which carries a comparatively light sentence, and then kill or have someone killed and face life in prison without parole, or death.”

Meanwhile, detectives are asking for the public’s help in finding Williams, who is said to be 5 feet, 10 inches tall, weighs 135 pounds and has a 7-inch scar on his right forearm. Although his hair is naturally blond, investigators said he has reportedly dyed it black and shaved his head.

Williams is from the San Fernando Valley, but also has friends in the Ventura County area.

“Obviously, this guy should be considered armed and extremely dangerous,” Swanston said.

Navaroli and his girlfriend were gunned down as they stepped from a pickup truck about 10:45 p.m.

Navaroli, struck in the head and upper torso, died at the scene. His girlfriend, whose identity is being withheld for her protection, was hit several times in the upper body, but survived. She is recovering in an undisclosed hospital.

The woman looked at a picture of Williams and positively identified him as the shooter, police sources said.

After receiving the death threat, Navaroli and his girlfriend were relocated to an apartment outside the West Valley to avoid contact with Leighton, police said.

Swanston said while police were paying the rent and had warned Navaroli that his life may be in jeopardy if he moved back to West Hills, Navaroli ignored that advice. He was killed about a month after he returned to the area.

Anyone with information on Williams’ whereabouts is asked to call the LAPD’s West Valley homicide bureau at (818) 756-8546 or local police.

Times staff writer Evelyn Larrubia contributed to this story.