Chef Denies Killing Ventura Teenager

Ryan Simas thought he left his Ventura youth behind when he graduated culinary school and landed a job as a top chef at Wolfgang Puck’s swank Spago restaurant in West Hollywood.

But Simas’ teenage past has suddenly thrown the adult into a tailspin.

Last month, Los Angeles and Ventura police arrested the 24-year-old Los Angeles resident on suspicion of murder for allegedly participating in the 1993 slaying of Ventura teen Jesse Strobel.

A popular Ventura High School football player, Strobel was stabbed to death after being confronted by a carload of teens while walking home from his father’s pizzeria at night. Wounded and bleeding, Strobel crawled to a house where he was found. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

The killing apparently occurred during a botched robbery, and police believe Simas, a 16-year-old Catholic high school student at the time, was the getaway driver.

Simas is now facing a murder charge and a special-circumstance allegation that the slaying occurred during a robbery. On Wednesday, he denied the charges during a Juvenile Court hearing.

A wiry man with short brown hair, Simas looked despondent and bowed his head as Los Angeles attorney Richard H. Millard urged Judge Brian Back to release him from custody pending a June 21 trial.

“It seems to me, your honor, that the only issues before the court are whether [Simas] is a danger to himself, a danger to others or is a threat to flee,” Millard argued.

He said Simas has admitted to “some participation in the fight that led to the death of Jesse Strobel.” But Millard said his client no longer associates with the other teenagers allegedly involved.

Moreover, he argued, Simas is a respected chef who has had no run-ins with the law and does not pose a danger to the community.

“His criminal background is basically zero,” Millard said.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Simon argued that Simas didn’t tell police all he knew about the Strobel slaying and remains a flight risk who should be held without bail.

“He was not truthful,” Simon said. “That’s one of the reasons it took so long to get this case to the state it is now.”

Back agreed and rejected Simas’ request for release.

Simas’ arrest has been bittersweet for authorities who spent seven years investigating the Strobel slaying, a crime that struck fear into the Ventura community. Because of his age at the time of the slaying, Simas faces only a year in custody if convicted of murder. That’s because minors found responsible for causing serious felonies, such as murder, cannot be detained past age 25.

Ventura Police Sgt. Bob Anderson said Simas initially was not considered a suspect, but was contacted as a potential witness because authorities believed he was in the area at the time. Anderson said Simas knew the suspects who were being looked at by police and knew what had happened to Strobel when he was questioned a few weeks after the stabbing.

But he said nothing, Anderson said in a Wednesday interview.

“He had an opportunity then and there to say ‘this is what the true story is,’ ” Anderson said.

Acting on tips, detectives focused their efforts on an unnamed classmate of Strobel’s at the high school. For years, the investigation centered on this person before a break came last year that changed the direction of the case.

An informant working with detectives trying to solve the June 1998 slaying of a Santa Paula market owner told authorities that gang member Jose “Pepe” Castillo had participated in both crimes.

Castillo, who was 15 at the time of Strobel’s killing, was arrested and later admitted to carrying out both murders. He agreed in March to a life sentence without possibility of parole for the Santa Paula killing.

It was during the Castillo investigation that Simas’ name came up after seven years, authorities said. Castillo and at least two other men involved in the attack on Strobel identified Simas as being involved and driving the group away from the crime scene in his family’s sedan, police said.

The other men, whom authorities would not name, reportedly will not face criminal charges in exchange for testifying in Simas’ case.

Simas was arrested May 3 at a Silver Lake apartment he shares with his girlfriend, authorities said.

His friends and co-workers said Wednesday that they stand behind Simas.

“We are all in full support of Ryan,” said Jay Webster, Spago assistant manager.

After Wednesday’s hearing, Millard said the case has turned his client’s life upside down.

“This is a tragedy all the way around,” Millard said.