Suicides Ventura County

A Ventura man wanted by police for questioning in an attack on his wife committed suicide by driving his car off a cliff, the county coroner's office said Tuesday. Donald Edward Ortiz, 37, was found dead in his car Tuesday afternoon at the bottom of an embankment off California 33 above Ojai, said Chief Deputy Coroner Jim Wingate. Ortiz died of multiple injuries after his 1988 BMW plunged 200 feet into the ravine late Monday, Wingate said.

A killing, an attempted murder and a suicide early Friday jolted two western Ventura County cities, officials said. The body of John Marmo Jr., 27, of Camarillo was found by Ventura County sheriff's deputies responding to a report of shots fired. It was the city's first apparent homicide of 2006. The shooting occurred about 6 a.m. in the 1200 block of Mission Verde Drive. Marmo, a salesman for a local equipment rental yard, was found lying in a courtyard between his front door and the street.

A 55-year-old drunken man who was taken into custody at a relative's request died in his cell early Tuesday after stuffing his shirt down his throat, police said. Pedro Martinez Gonzalez was pronounced dead at 5:16 a.m. in the Police Department's booking cell, said Deputy County Coroner James Baroni. Gonzalez had stuffed part of his shirt and pieces of his shirt sleeve down his throat, Baroni said. He ruled the suffocation death a suicide. Gonzalez was arrested shortly before 1 a.m.

The suspect in a shooting rampage that devastated a Simi Valley family apparently turned his gun on himself Friday afternoon as police pursued him through rugged back country about 30 miles north of Ojai. Reynaldo Herrera Rodriguez, a 35-year-old Caltrans engineer, was found dead near a Los Padres National Forest campground about 5 p.m. with a gunshot wound to the head, Ventura County authorities said.

A veteran Ventura County Sheriff's Department sergeant apparently committed suicide just hours before his scheduled arraignment on charges of molesting a girl over a five-year period beginning when she was 10. The Ventura Police Department said the body of Robert Michael LeFever was found Tuesday in a small trailer that the former deputy kept at a Ventura storage lot.

A Simi Valley man suspected of raping the 16-year-old daughter of an acquaintance took his own life, Simi Valley police said Saturday. The shooting occurred Friday after the 16-year-old girl ran from John Grepiotis' house in Parker Court and called police from a nearby home, saying she had been raped. Meanwhile, neighbors heard two gunshots from Grepiotis' house and also called police. A SWAT team and Simi Valley policemen arrived at Grepiotis' home at 8:17 p.m.

A 26-year-old man who threatened a deputy with a paint ball gun and then was shot to death outlined his plans to die in notes left behind, sheriff's officials said Friday. Notes found in Derek B. Myers' crashed car after the early morning chase Thursday show "he'd been thinking about this exact scenario," Sheriff's Cmdr. Bruce McDowell said. Myers of Thousand Oaks was shot to death by a deputy.

The suspect in a shooting rampage that devastated a Simi Valley family apparently turned his gun on himself Friday afternoon as police pursued him through rugged back country about 30 miles north of Ojai. Reynaldo Herrera Rodriguez, a 35-year-old Caltrans engineer, was found dead near a Los Padres National Forest campground about 5 p.m. with a gunshot wound to the head, Ventura County authorities said.

A killing, an attempted murder and a suicide early Friday jolted two western Ventura County cities, officials said. The body of John Marmo Jr., 27, of Camarillo was found by Ventura County sheriff's deputies responding to a report of shots fired. It was the city's first apparent homicide of 2006. The shooting occurred about 6 a.m. in the 1200 block of Mission Verde Drive. Marmo, a salesman for a local equipment rental yard, was found lying in a courtyard between his front door and the street.

A 26-year-old man who threatened a deputy with a paint ball gun and then was shot to death outlined his plans to die in notes left behind, sheriff's officials said Friday. Notes found in Derek B. Myers' crashed car after the early morning chase Thursday show "he'd been thinking about this exact scenario," Sheriff's Cmdr. Bruce McDowell said. Myers of Thousand Oaks was shot to death by a deputy.

A 55-year-old drunken man who was taken into custody at a relative's request died in his cell early Tuesday after stuffing his shirt down his throat, police said. Pedro Martinez Gonzalez was pronounced dead at 5:16 a.m. in the Police Department's booking cell, said Deputy County Coroner James Baroni. Gonzalez had stuffed part of his shirt and pieces of his shirt sleeve down his throat, Baroni said. He ruled the suffocation death a suicide. Gonzalez was arrested shortly before 1 a.m.

A Simi Valley man suspected of raping the 16-year-old daughter of an acquaintance took his own life, Simi Valley police said Saturday. The shooting occurred Friday after the 16-year-old girl ran from John Grepiotis' house in Parker Court and called police from a nearby home, saying she had been raped. Meanwhile, neighbors heard two gunshots from Grepiotis' house and also called police. A SWAT team and Simi Valley policemen arrived at Grepiotis' home at 8:17 p.m.

A Ventura man wanted by police for questioning in an attack on his wife committed suicide by driving his car off a cliff, the county coroner's office said Tuesday. Donald Edward Ortiz, 37, was found dead in his car Tuesday afternoon at the bottom of an embankment off California 33 above Ojai, said Chief Deputy Coroner Jim Wingate. Ortiz died of multiple injuries after his 1988 BMW plunged 200 feet into the ravine late Monday, Wingate said.

A veteran Ventura County Sheriff's Department sergeant apparently committed suicide just hours before his scheduled arraignment on charges of molesting a girl over a five-year period beginning when she was 10. The Ventura Police Department said the body of Robert Michael LeFever was found Tuesday in a small trailer that the former deputy kept at a Ventura storage lot.