2 Pictures Emerge of Suspect in Teen’s ’93 Slaying as Trial Opens

For seven years, Ryan Simas kept a dark secret about the deadly attack on Ventura High School student Jesse Strobel and intentionally led police on a “wild goose chase” to distance himself from the crime, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Simon told a judge in opening statements of Simas’ trial that the 24-year-old chef was one of four teenagers who assaulted Strobel on the night of Jan. 29, 1993, and should be found guilty of murder.

“They accosted [Strobel] for money and ended up stabbing him to death,” Simon said, adding that Simas later fingered an innocent man and threw an investigation off-track for six years.

But Los Angeles defense attorney Richard Millard said his client played no role in the slaying, which allegedly occurred during a robbery attempt.

“The evidence will show that there is no discussion with Ryan Simas about anyone’s motive to rob somebody,” Millard said. He said his client came from an affluent family and didn’t need to steal money.

He described Simas as an all-star soccer player who attended Catholic high school and never ran afoul of the law.

“Ryan Simas was the type of youth, and since adult, that most parents would be proud to have,” Millard said. “He was a good boy.”

Simas was arrested last month on suspicion of murder for allegedly participating in Strobel’s slaying. Simas is facing murder charges in Juvenile Court for a crime prosecutors say he committed when he was 16.

That trial started Wednesday afternoon before Ventura County Superior Court Judge Brian Back, and is expected to last about a week.

Simas is the second suspect to be prosecuted in the Strobel killing. Last year, 22-year-old Santa Paula resident Jose “Pepe” Castillo admitted to wielding the murder weapon and stabbing Strobel in the chest.

Castillo’s boastful admissions to a police informant last year were what led authorities to crack the case. For years, they had suspected one of Strobel’s Ventura High School classmates initially fingered by Simas.

Prosecutors charged Simas with murder after Castillo and the two other teens in the car that night told investigators he was the driver and participated in the fight.

But because of his age, Simas faces less than a year in custody if convicted because serious juvenile offenders cannot be held past age 25.

Regardless of the penalty, the case is significant for law enforcement, who spent six years investigating a slaying that stunned and angered the Ventura community.

Strobel, a popular Ventura High School football player, was walking home from his father’s beach-side pizzeria about 11 p.m. when he was allegedly confronted by the carload of teens, who had been cruising the residential neighborhood.

A fight broke out during which Strobel fought back vigorously but was stabbed in the chest, police said. The 17-year-old crawled on bloody hands to a neighbor’s house for help and collapsed on the front porch after finding no one home.

Roxanne Skieva and her friends found Strobel that night after coming home from a roller rink. Skieva, a Ventura High student at the time, was among the first witnesses to testify at Simas’ trial Wednesday.

“I thought somebody had gotten drunk and passed out,” she recalled.

But when her friend flipped on the porch light, she saw blood. They called 911, and Strobel was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Ventura Police Sgt. Glen Young testified that he saw blood drops and smears more than 100 feet down the street from where Strobel eventually collapsed on the porch.

The teen had been only a few blocks from his home.

The testimony marked the first time that details of the killing and the events leading up to it have been revealed in court. Simon said two of the other teenagers who were in the car have been granted immunity from prosecution and will testify.

During Wednesday’s court proceedings, Simas--a thin sandy-haired chef--glanced down at the counsel table and showed little reaction to the testimony.

His parents, sister and other relatives sat behind him in court, while Strobel’s parents and family members sat a few feet away. As Young testified about the bloody handprints on the neighbor’s driveway, Strobel’s mother and grandfather quietly wept.

Millard indicated in his opening statement that the judge and court observers will hear two different accounts of what happened on Jan. 29.

He said Simas drove to Santa Paula to pick up two of his friends, who had invited a third teen he did not know to come along for the night. That teen was Castillo. The four headed to Ventura, cruised around listening to music and looking for girls, and sometime before 11 p.m. one of the teens told Simas: “Turn here.”

Millard said Simas turned onto North Catalina Street where they pulled over so one of the teens could urinate. He said a “scuffle” started with a person walking up the street--apparently Strobel.

After the fight, Millard said, all four teens climbed back in the car and Simas drove away--not knowing that Strobel had been stabbed. Millard said he may call Simas’ relatives to testify about his client’s clean record, adding that the accusations are “totally out of character to the life Ryan Simas has led.”

Simas is a graduate of culinary school and a chef at Spago restaurant in West Hollywood.