Teen Arrested in Slaying of Woman in Santa Paula

A murder investigation that included stops in Kern County and Oxnard led to a Santa Paula street with the arrest of a 17-year-old boy in connection with last week’s fatal shooting of Joanna Marie Orozco.

Santa Paula police arrested the teenager about 11:30 p.m. Monday after a brief standoff.

Investigators persuaded the boy by telephone to surrender about an hour after they arrived at the two-story apartment complex on Santa Anna Street where he was staying with relatives, said Cmdr. Mark Hansen of the Santa Paula Police Department.

“We originally got all the adults and the young children out, and then he was talked out of the house,” Hansen said. “It’s a tragic situation on both sides. . . . There didn’t appear to be any reason for it.”

The juvenile was booked on suspicion of one count of murder in the Nov. 7 shooting of Santa Paula resident Orozco, 21. She was shot about 7:30 p.m. in the street in front of a house next to Las Piedras Park, authorities said.

Shortly before the shooting, Orozco and a friend, Fillmore resident Shane Longoria, had stopped by the house to pick up an acquaintance. According to police, the suspect asked Longoria if he was a gang member. Orozco turned toward the youth, and there was an argument. Since the shooting, Longoria has said he is not a gang member.

“It didn’t seem to me that they knew each other,” Hansen said of Orozco and the teenager. “It was a lot of that gang-style rhetoric, and the girl said, ‘I’ll be out by the car.’ ”

Investigators say the suspect followed her to the street and shot her, then continued firing, hitting Longoria once in the arm. Longoria was treated at a hospital and released last Wednesday.

Santa Paula Police Det. Daryl Koranda said the arrest concluded a weeklong investigation.

Hansen said detectives served arrest warrants Saturday at the suspect’s Oxnard home and at the home of his grandparents in the Kern County town of McFarland.

Several people who were in the crowded park during an evening soccer match identified the 17-year-old as the gunman, Hansen said. Although the shooting happened at night, Hansen said, street lights illuminated the area and witnesses were close to the crime scene.

News of the arrest was small consolation to Orozco’s older sister, Christine.

“He has no idea what he took from us,” she said. “I hope he gets what he deserves--whatever God has in store for him.”