Memory of Slain Student Lives On a Year Later

It’s been a year since Kali Manley was strangled.

Ventura County sheriff’s deputies believe the 14-year-old Ojai girl was killed during an attempted rape in the predawn hours of Dec. 20, 1998. Her body was found a week later stuffed into a drainage ditch in the rugged hills north of Ojai.

A year later, Kali’s memory is still very much alive.

Last week, attorneys continued polishing their arguments for the scheduled Jan. 19 murder trial of David Alvarez, 22, with whom Manley was partying before she disappeared.

Alvarez’s lawyer, James M. Farley, won’t say how his client spends his time behind bars--whether he reads or takes classes by correspondence. But Alvarez is regularly visited by family members.

Ojai residents have donated $5,000 to the Nordhoff High School Leo Club, which is building a trolley stop at the campus in Kali’s memory.

A foundation has been poured and a couple of benches installed. A shelter and a plaque are to be installed soon.

“Life goes on regardless of the tragedies,” said Rick Carreon, the club’s advisor.

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Four prison parolees considered armed and dangerous are being sought for questioning about a string of armed robberies and other violent crimes that occurred in the last two weeks, Oxnard police detectives said.

So far, five businesses have been robbed by an armed man and an accomplice. Four were takeover robberies, in which the gunman fired a shot into the ceiling and stole cash. Other crimes include kidnapping and carjacking.

In the most recent case, a 30-year-old Oxnard woman was kidnapped from her home and driven along the Ventura Freeway, while the gunman fired shots at passing cars.

“He thought police were after him and he thought they were police cars,” said Sgt. Lee Wilcox.

The targets were actually civilians and, amazingly, no one was injured. The victim escaped by jumping out of the car on the freeway when the gunman slowed to about 35 mph. She suffered minor cuts and scrapes.

Wilcox said officers want to talk to John David Barnett, 36; Isaac Kingsby, 28; and Derrick Washington, 29, all of Oxnard; and Troy Timm, 30, of Port Hueneme. Police did not identify the men as suspects in the robberies and other crimes but believe one or all of them might have information about these cases.

The men have served time for crimes that include drugs and weapons violations, police said.

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Crime victims in Oxnard can go to the mall for help. To make it easier for victims to get information about court dates, counseling, restraining orders and state aid, the county has opened a branch of its Victim Services Division at the Oxnard Police Department’s storefront inside The Esplanade.

It’s the first time the district attorney’s office has offered such services outside courthouses in Ventura and Simi Valley.

“It’s a totally new program and we have no idea, yet, how well it will work. But it could be a great service to that community,” said Jacqueline Tilkens, director of the Victim Services Division.

Tilkens said some crime victims don’t go for help because they don’t want to drive to Ventura or fear there won’t be any Spanish-speaking people to help them.

The Oxnard division office opened a couple of weeks ago and is staffed by a bilingual employee, who works each Wednesday from 1 to 5 p.m. This could be a valuable asset in the community, as more than two dozen cases a week handled at the Ventura office are Oxnard residents, records show.

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It used to be license plates, but now it’s bicycles.

Inmates at the county’s Todd Road Jail in Santa Paula recently refurbished 75 used bicycles to be given to underprivileged kids during the holiday season.

The prisoners rode a bus each day to a warehouse at the county jail in Ojai and worked full time for four weeks, learning to be two-wheel mechanics, said Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Boltinhouse.

The crew of six learned how to do written diagnoses of bikes, replace tires and adjust hubs, brakes and gears.

“They were highly motivated that these bikes were going to kids in the community,” Boltinhouse said. “Some said they would do this to their own bikes on the outside, and one guy said he might try and get a job.”

The bicycles, all unclaimed property picked up by patrolling deputies, were given to children at a party Dec. 11. Each was allowed to chose one from the fleet of shiny cruisers, BMXs and all-terrain bikes.

Holly J. Wolcott can be reached at Holly.Wolcott@latimes.com.