Suspect in Fatal Stabbing Claims Self-Defense

After being asked to leave a party in Simi Valley, 19-year-old Robert Winters stabbed three men with a pocketknife and tossed the bloody weapon on the roadside as he fled the scene, a police detective testified Friday.

The Oct. 13, 2001, confrontation left one man dead, two others injured and the suspect facing charges of murder and attempted murder that could send him to prison for life.

On Friday, friends and relatives of the defendant and the victims crowded into a Ventura County courtroom for a preliminary hearing.

Deputy Public Defender Randy Tucker conceded in a brief opening statement that Winters, a Ventura resident, stabbed the three men. But Tucker told Superior Court Judge Ken Riley that his client acted in self-defense after being jumped by drunk party-goers.

The assertion conflicts with accounts given to police by some witnesses, however.

Simi Valley Police Det. Jay Carrott testified that, based on his interviews with people at the party, Winters lunged at the victims with an opened knife after being asked to leave.

The stabbings occurred about 10 minutes after Winters showed up at the Breton Avenue residence with friends and became involved in a verbal altercation with another party-goer, Carrott testified.

As victims Ryan Kramer and Mike Ponticelli tried to escort Winters from the house, Kramer tripped on a step in the garage and he and Winters fell to the ground, Carrott said. When Winters arose, he held a knife and began swinging it “like a madman” at Kramer and Ponticelli, Carrott added.

Both men were struck and injured. But it was their friend, 21-year-old Randy Lucero, who suffered the fatal blows.

According to Carrott’s testimony, Winters buried the folding knife’s 3-inch blade into Lucero’s chest, piercing his heart, after Lucero rushed to the garage, possibly to break up the fight.

Winters, who did not know the victims, fled the scene in the back of a friend’s pickup truck. The friend, Mike Ramirez, later told police he saw Winters toss something over an embankment as they drove away.

Carrott searched the area and found a blood-stained knife, which the assistant medical examiner matched to Lucero’s wounds.

Winters turned himself in to police two days after the stabbings. In addition to the murder charges, he is accused of stealing beer from a convenience store on the way to the party. He remains held in lieu of $1 million in bail.

Testimony is scheduled to resume Monday.