Jurors Find Man Guilty of Casitas Springs Murder

A 27-year-old Meiners Oaks man was found guilty Tuesday of second-degree murder and related charges for fatally shooting an acquaintance in the head during a dispute at an Ojai Valley trailer park last December.

Daniel Joseph Bonilla faces a life sentence in state prison for killing 36-year-old Ojai resident Thomas Mahl. Under a new law, Bonilla faces an additional life term for using a firearm during the homicide.

His sentencing hearing is set for July 14.

“We’re definitely safe in saying he’ll never get out,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Simon, explaining that Bonilla faces additional prison time for other related crimes.

In all, Bonilla was convicted of eight felonies, including kidnapping, carjacking and trying to prevent a witness from testifying. The jury also found various allegations to be supported by the evidence in the case.

Those allegations, such as inflicting bodily injury, will enhance Bonilla’s sentence. Simon estimates that Bonilla would have to serve 113 years behind bars before he could be eligible for parole.

The shooting of Mahl occurred Dec. 5, 1998, at a trailer park in Casitas Springs. Prosecutors say Bonilla fired at Mahl after a dispute, then walked to a nearby house where an elderly couple--unaware of the shooting--called him a taxicab.

Authorities say Bonilla then kidnapped the cab driver and forced him to drive north on the Ventura Freeway to Santa Barbara. He later released the driver unharmed in Goleta but took the vehicle.

Bonilla was arrested a short time later after he lost control of the taxi, careened 90 feet off the highway and crashed, authorities said. He crawled from the wreckage and hiked to a road, where he was met by police.

Inside the taxi, authorities said, they recovered a .22-caliber revolver that had been fired three times.

In his opening statement last week, Bonilla’s attorney contested only the murder charge, admitting that his client kidnapped the driver and carjacked the taxicab.

But Deputy Public Defender Steve Lipson told the jury that his client did not fire the bullet that killed Mahl, suggesting there was another shooter.

Bonilla’s trial began last week in Ventura County Superior Court and ended with closing arguments Friday.

Jurors began deliberations later that day and returned with a verdict Tuesday about noon.