Tuesday, Apr. 29, 2008

Chowchilla men arrested in connection to execution-style slaying

Police say suspect fatally shot dairy worker

By CHARLES MCCARTHY
The Fresno Bee

MADERA -- Two Chowchilla men were arrested Monday on suspicion of shooting two workers, one fatally, in a dairy barn near Chowchilla in January.

Madera County Sheriff John Anderson identified the two suspects in the Jan. 19 shooting as 20-year-old Jesus Reynoso Flores and 22-year-old Jose Antonio Flores Ventura.

The suspects appeared in a grainy, poorly lit videotape from a milking barn surveillance camera. Anderson said a tip about a unique, multicolored hooded sweatshirt worn by the shooter led to Monday's arrests.

The tape showed the gunman entering the barn and firing a sawed-off rifle at the victim, Alberto Ivan Narvaez-Torres, 18, of Chowchilla. The video shows Torres lying on the floor, raising his left hand toward the gunman in the colorful sweat shirt. The gunman then fires directly at Torres' chest.

It was Madera County's first homicide of the year.

A second dairy worker was wounded in the shooting but recovered. On Monday, officers refused to identify this witness but said he has been cooperative.

Anderson said that investigators have no motive for the shooting. Narvaez-Torres was just starting his first night of work in the dairy barn. He wasn't involved with gangs or drugs and had no arrest record, Anderson said.

A tattered portion of a sweatshirt matching the one in the videotape was found in the pen of a pit bull in Reynoso Flores' home, Anderson said.

"It was put in the pen with the biggest pit bull that I've ever seen," Anderson said Monday.

The sweatshirt remnants will be checked for DNA evidence, Anderson said.

Officers gathered at 4 a.m. Monday to plan their raids on the Chowchilla homes of both men, Anderson said. But unknown to officers, Reynoso Flores was already in Madera County Jail after Chowchilla police arrested him Sunday evening on an unrelated $3,000 traffic warrant.

When the officers learned he was already in jail, they ordered him held without bail on suspicion of murder.

Flores Ventura was arrested without incident at his home early Monday, Anderson said.

Madera County District Attorney Ernest LiCalsi said both suspects will be charged with first-degree murder. Both are being held without bail in Madera County Jail. Arraignment is expected Wednesday.