Murder Suspect Took Assault Rifle, Witness Tells Judge

Murder suspect Vincent Sanchez took an AK-47 assault rifle from his roommate around the same time college student Megan Barroso was gunned down as she drove home from a party last summer, a witness testified Tuesday.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Tim Lorenzen told a judge at Sanchez’s preliminary hearing on murder charges that the roommate noticed the rifle and ammunition were missing about a week after the July 5 shooting.

Sanchez later admitted taking the firearm and returned it the next day, Lorenzen testified. Authorities suspect the assault rifle was used to shoot Barroso, a 20-year-old Moorpark College student, as she drove home from a Fourth of July party.

Her bullet-riddled car was found abandoned near a freeway overpass early July 5, and her remains were found a month later in a canyon near Simi Valley.

Deputy Gene Torres, who arrived on the scene, found that the rental car had three shots in the windshield, one in the driver-side door and one through the hood.

Prosecutors say Sanchez shot Barroso, pulled her from the car and sexually assaulted her before she died. But defense attorneys say there was no rape and that Barroso died almost immediately.

Sanchez, 31, a Simi Valley handyman, could face the death penalty if prosecutors can prove that the killing occurred during a sexual assault.

Defense lawyers contend that their client shot Barroso, but they are fighting the murder charge and other allegations in hopes of keeping Sanchez off death row.

Sanchez has pleaded guilty to raping and assaulting at least 10 women in Simi Valley during the last five years, and for the last week the preliminary hearing in Ventura County Superior Court has largely focused on the circumstances of those crimes.

But the evidence shifted to the Barroso slaying Tuesday as Lorenzen and other witnesses testified to the discovery of Barroso’s car and later her body.

A crime scene technician found bullet fragments and six cartridge casings in the nearby area, as well as a cleaning rod to an assault rifle, according to court testimony.

In the car, authorities found blood near the gear shift and a blood-stained cosmetics bag.