Shooting, Stabbing Victim Recalls 1996 Attack

Former Oxnard resident Frank Olivas remembers what happened the night of Sept. 26, 1996, in frightening snapshots.

He and three men had been cruising the Oxnard Plain for more than an hour, smoking marijuana and lying low on dark back roads surrounded by farmland.

At one point, he told a jury Friday, they stopped their car on a moonlit stretch of Wood Road, and Olivas, then 16, walked to the center to relieve himself.

That is when he was shot.

One bullet hit his neck. A second pierced his thigh. A third struck his lower back and came out the other side. Olivas said he heard two more shots whiz pasthim and wheeled around to see who held the gun.

His eyes landed on David Oliva, an acquaintance who was one of the men in the car that night. Prosecutors say that Oliva, an Oxnard resident, attempted to kill the victim because he was in a jealous rage.

The pair faced off again Friday in Ventura County Superior Court, where Oliva, 21, is now charged with attempted murder and inflicting great bodily injury. He faces an added charge for allegedly using a firearm.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Bill Haney told jurors in opening statements Friday that it’s a miracle the victim survived the attack. He said by the time Olivas reached the hospital, he had lost nearly half the blood in his body. In addition to being shot, Olivas was stabbed in the chest, neck and head with either a knife or a screwdriver, and left for dead on the side of the road.

He staggered 200 yards toward a home in search of help, but collapsed. An off-duty California Highway Patrol officer discovered him there and called 911.

“I was just struggling, trying to stay alive,” Olivas said Friday.

Haney said Oliva was obsessed and jealous, having heard rumors that Olivas had twice had sex with the defendant’s girlfriend. But defense attorney James Farley told the jury that it was not his client, but another teen in the car that night, who tried to kill Olivas. He said defense witness Sally Prado would testify that, after the attack, Gerardo Hernandez, Olivas’ close friend, told her he shot the victim.

Although the victim identified the defendant as the shooter, Farley said evidence will show that Olivas initially could only tell authorities that “somebody” started shooting him.

Dressed casually and speaking in a soft voice, Olivas told jurors Friday that he doesn’t like talking about what happened to him that night. Throughout his testimony, he had trouble recalling certain details.

But he did identify the defendant as his attacker, and said he remembers begging him to stop the assault.

On cross-examination, he said the defendant never mentioned the woman they both dated and told jurors that he now believes Hernandez helped set up the attack by inviting him on the car ride.

“The way I see it, he just took me out there so David could do what he wanted to do,” Olivas said.

In earlier testimony, CHP Officer Donald Scholl told the jury that he and a surfing friend were heading back from the beach after dark when they saw a suspicious-looking object near the side of Wood Road.

Scholl said they drove by, but turned around to determine if it was a person. As they got close, he said, they realized it was a young Latino male covered in blood. They drove to a phone and called for help.