Trial Opens in Beating Death of Ventura Teen

Angered that police busted their party, a group of Ventura gang members and their associates stormed across the street to confront the people they mistakenly thought were to blame.

They found 18-year-old William Zara and his friends. And in the chaotic minutes that followed, the mob beat Zara to death with a bat and a shovel as he attempted to defend himself from the attackers.

“Because the Ventura Avenue Gangsters thought he was a rat or his friends were rats, they killed him,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Maeve Fox during her opening statements Wednesday. “Zara was punched, kicked, stabbed, beaten and eventually his skull was crushed.”

Defense attorneys said Zara’s fatal beating on Sept. 24, 1999, was a tragedy, but that it was not caused by a brutal gang attack. Rather, his beating was the unfortunate end to a brawl between neighbors, they said.

“This is a neighborhood dispute that just went crazy,” attorney Philip Gunnels said.

Four of the alleged attackers--Frank Olvera, 34, Rosana Olvera, 37, Terry Schell, 23, and Benny Lopez, 19--are being tried in a Ventura courtroom for murder, conspiracy to commit an assault and gang-related charges. If convicted, they could face sentences of life in prison.

The defendants are among nine people who were arrested in the killing. Charges were dropped against three, a fourth will be tried separately and a fifth was granted immunity to testify against the others.

Zara, a stagehand at the Ventura Theater who was known for his love of music, died Sept. 26, 1999, from massive head injuries. His parents sat on one side of the courtroom watching Wednesday’s proceedings, while family members of the defendants filled the other side of the room.

Sam Zara said he is relieved the trial is finally underway. “We’re looking forward to the conclusion so we can get on with our lives,” he said. “It’s time.”

In her opening statement, Fox described the events that occurred that September night just off Ventura Avenue. The day started with a celebration at a nearby park to honor a slain gang member, Ricardo Silva. Later that night, the crowd gathered at the Olveras.

Just before 9:30 p.m., police responded to a call from Cynthia Ochoa about a loud party on East Warner Street. After police left, Rosana Olvera came over to the apartment complex where Zara and his friends lived and screamed at them for calling police, Fox said.

A teenage friend, Ciara Hall, testified Wednesday that she told Olvera they did not call the police. Olvera responded by shoving her into some trash cans, she said.

Then as many as 20 gang members and their friends filled the apartment complex and began kicking and punching several of Zara’s friends.

Zara came out with a baseball bat to help defend his friends. That is when Frank Olvera slammed him with a shovel and Lopez grabbed the bat and hit him repeatedly in the head, prosecutors said. Zara fell to the ground.

With tears running down her face, Hall testified that she ran to Zara’s side as the attack ended and the crowd scattered. Zara was bleeding and wasn’t conscious. His roommate was holding him and yelling, “Leave us alone,” Hall said.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Fox described the Ventura Avenue Gangsters as a criminal street gang with about 100 active members who regularly commit crimes, strictly control their turf and instill fear in those around them.

Both Schell and Lopez are members and the Olveras have friends and family members in the gang, the prosecutor said.

“Bill Zara’s death was an act of retaliation for a perceived slight to Rosana Olvera and the gang,” Fox said. “We are going to prove to you that all four of the defendants have William Zara’s blood on their hands.”

Three of the defense attorneys also made opening statements Wednesday afternoon, saying their clients were not the killers. They told the jury to consider the defendants’ cases individually. They said that the melee was a fight among neighbors, not an attack by a gang. The defendants did not cross the street with weapons and did not conspire to hurt anybody, they said.

Gunnels said his client, Rosana Olvera, was angry that somebody had called the police and went to express her frustration to the neighbors. Olvera lost her cool and hit the teenage Hall, he admitted, but said she did not touch Zara or do anything to cause his death.

Defense attorney Victor Salas, who represents Lopez, said it is impossible to determine exactly what happened in the courtyard that night and cautioned the jurors to be aware of witnesses misidentifying people.

Representing Schell, attorney Nancy Aronson said her client was in the courtyard but that he never had the baseball bat or the shovel and did not beat Zara. She also defended the gang allegations, saying that several of the people at the party were members of a gang, but that they were gathering that night to hang out with their family and friends.

“This case is not about a gang,” she said. “It is not about a gang party. It’s about a family.”