Murder Suspect Testifies Against Former Friends

On trial in the beating death of a Ventura teenager, one of five defendants took the witness stand Tuesday to accuse another of fatally striking the victim with a baseball bat.

Defendant Frank Olvera told jurors that he watched co-defendant Benny Lopez swing an aluminum bat at Billy Zara, 18, delivering blows to his head and upper back that knocked the victim to the ground and left him unconscious.

The testimony pits Olvera, 34, against co-defendants Lopez, 20, and Terry Schell, 23, all charged with murder and conspiracy to commit an assault in the Zara beating. Olvera’s wife, Rosana, 37, faces the same charges.

Prosecutors say the Sept. 25, 1999, attack was a retaliatory strike that happened because the suspects believed Zara had called the police to report a loud party attended by the defendants at a house across the street from Zara’s East Warner Avenue apartment. But investigators said Zara was not the one who called authorities.

After police responded to the nuisance call, officers confronted the Olveras about the complaint, according to grand jury transcripts. Rosana Olvera blamed some of her neighbors for the noise.

When police left, about a dozen gang members swarmed the courtyard in front of Zara’s apartment, punching and kicking several residents. Zara, armed with a bat to defend his friends, lost control of his weapon and ultimately was beaten with a shovel and a bat, and stabbed several times, prosecutors have said.

Frank Olvera said it was Ramiro Salgado, 21, another defendant in the case who will be tried separately, who first struck Zara with a shovel, bringing him to his knees. Olvera said Lopez then followed up with swings with the bat.

Defense attorney Victor Salas, who represents Benny Lopez, attacked Olvera’s testimony, which he called a self-serving attempt to clear himself at the expense of his former friends and co-defendants.