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.

According to Olvera’s testimony, Schell later told Olvera that he used a knife to “shank” Zara, which is gang slang for stabbing someone.

The testimony was radically different from the story Olvera told police in the days after the slaying, when he repeatedly downplayed the role he and other gang members played in the attack. But Olvera, who associates with the Ventura gang involved in the case but is not considered a member, said he was afraid of what gang members would do to him if they found out he cooperated with police.

“It was fear of retaliation,” Olvera said. “When it comes to someone giving up the truth, the word gets out that someone’s been ratted on.”

Olvera said he was in the middle of the eight-minute melee just long enough to try to pull away wife Rosana Olvera, who he said was being pulled into one of the apartments by a group of residents. After suffering a gash on his leg, Olvera said he broke away and retreated to his house across the street. It was from there he witnessed Zara’s bludgeoning.

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. Prosecutors allege Olvera was not a passive witness, but an active participant who at one point used the shovel to strike Zara.

“You somehow have got to get around the fact that someone saw you with the shovel,” Salas said. “So you’ve created yourself a scapegoat. You are testifying not because what you have to say is the truth, but because you are trying to explain away your own guilt.”

Defense attorney Charles Cassy, who represents Olvera, repeatedly objected to Salas’ accusations. Each objection was sustained by the judge, preventing Olvera from answering.