A 38-year-old Camarillo man was charged within the killing of a Honduran immigrant after police discovered he was utilizing the lifeless man’s debit card, based on Ventura County officers.
Rotherie Durell Foster was charged Wednesday with the homicide of 35-year-old José Antonio Velásquez, who was final seen July 27 and reported lacking three days later, based on the Ventura County district legal professional’s workplace.
Foster was arrested in August on fraud fees when investigators discovered that after Velásquez was reported lacking, Foster used Velásquez’s debit card and checking account at fuel stations, retail companies and a deli in Los Angeles County. Hikers found Velásquez’s physique in October off Mulholland Drive within the Santa Monica Mountains, based on prosecutors. He had been shot a number of instances.
Prosecutors say the homicide was carried out for monetary acquire.
Across the time of the killing, Foster was arrested as a felon in possession of a 9-millimeter handgun, Ventura Dist. Atty. Erik Nasarenko introduced throughout a information convention. Foster beforehand served 21 years in jail for a voluntary manslaughter cost in 2000 and a 2004 assault with the infliction of nice bodily harm in Sacramento County, authorities mentioned.
Velásquez and Foster labored as plumbers in Ventura County and knew one another. Initially, Velásquez was reported as a lacking particular person, however then investigators discovered concerning the unauthorized use of his debit card and checking account.
Velásquez, a local of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, settled in Simi Valley in 2016, the place he additionally labored as a plumber. In October 2021, he obtained his normal contractor’s license and finally moved into his personal house in Camarillo.
He was reported lacking after not answering his cellphone, based on members of the family who spoke with The Occasions. His final identified location was close to Janss Market in Thousand Oaks on July 27, the place he met with some associates for beer earlier than they bought of their automobiles and headed towards Velásquez’s house.
Authorities discovered Velásquez’s work van Aug. 1, about 4 miles from Janss Market.
Household and associates had held a number of vigils for Velásquez, who had left Honduras when he was 15 and was a recipient of the federal Deferred Motion for Childhood Arrivals program.
The afternoon he went lacking, Velásquez spoke on the cellphone together with his mom, Rita Maldonado, who lives in Virginia. He had simply moved into his Camarillo house, Maldonado mentioned. He informed his mom he was pleased and doing properly, and that work was preserving him busy.
“This has been my dream, I discovered it,” Maldonado mentioned her son informed her.
Foster was sentenced to 16 years in jail for a voluntary manslaughter cost when he was a juvenile, based on prosecutors. In 2018, he was launched on parole supervision and in November 2020 was discharged from parole after serving his sentence.
Foster was charged with 11 counts on Wednesday, together with homicide with a particular circumstance, being a felon in possession of a firearm, seven counts of identification theft and two counts of forgery.
The physique of José Antonio Velásquez was discovered by hikers in October after he disappeared in July.
(Gloria Velásquez)
“This was an individual with a promising and a vibrant future,” Nasarenko mentioned of Velásquez.
Foster will probably be arraigned Feb. 17 and prosecutors will ask that no bail be granted.
Occasions workers writers Soudi Jiménez and Alexandra Petri contributed to this story.
