District Attorney Gregory D. Totten announced today that Franky Magana (DOB 11/12/1985) and Omar Ruiz (DOB 07/27/1987), both of Santa Paula, were convicted of second- degree murder for the benefit of a criminal street gang for shooting and killing Ulises Virto in the city of Santa Paula. Ruiz was also convicted of assault with a firearm on a peace officer for shooting at a peace officer during his arrest five months later.

On May 27, 2013, Ulises Virto was standing on a street corner on the 400 block of Dartmouth Road in the city of Santa Paula. Magana, Ruiz, and a third unidentified gunman drove up next to Virto, exited their vehicle, and opened fire with three handguns in a gang-motivated attack. Virto was shot seven times and died at the scene. A Santa Paula Police Department officer intercepted and pursued the three gunmen as they fled the scene in their vehicle. During the high-speed chase, all three guns and other evidence were tossed from the vehicle. Soon thereafter, the car temporarily stopped to let Magana exit and flee on foot. The officer chased Magana on foot and quickly took him into custody. Ruiz and the unidentified gunman continued to flee in the vehicle, eventually abandoning it two blocks away. On November 7, 2013, Ruiz was tracked down by Ventura County Sheriff’s deputies to an address on the 5300 block of Holly Ridge Drive in the city of Camarillo. From within the home, Ruiz watched on a closed-circuit surveillance system as deputies approached the residence. Ruiz fired on the deputies with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle until the gun jammed. After a brief stand-off, Ruiz was taken into custody. No deputies were injured during the assault.

All the evidence thrown from the vehicle, including the three guns, as well as other evidence seized at the crime scene, were forensically analyzed and connected to Ruiz and Magana.

Magana and Ruiz will be sentenced on March 26, 2018, at 9:00 a.m. in courtroom 45 of the Ventura Superior Court, County of Ventura. Both will be facing life sentences.

District Attorney Gregory D. Totten announced today that Chris Gallegos (DOB 6/6/1997), of Ventura, along with two juvenile males have been charged in the murder of Joseph Cruz committed on December 25, 2017, in the city of Ventura. Gallegos and the two juveniles are charged with committing the murder with the use of a knife, and in association with and for the benefit of a criminal street gang. The case was investigated by the Ventura Police Department.

Gallegos has pled not guilty to the charge and special allegations. A court hearing has been scheduled for Gallegos on January 31, 2018, and he remains in custody at the Ventura County jail in lieu of $1,110,000 bail. The arraignment for the two juveniles was continued to February 6, 2018. They remain detained and their next hearing will be held at the Juvenile Justice Center. A motion to transfer the juvenile cases to adult court has been filed by the District Attorney’s Office.

Ventura County Department of Public Health

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) today announced that flu activity in California is widespread and at levels usually seen at the peak of the influenza season. Health officials encourage Californians to get vaccinated.

“With the increase in influenza impacting many communities across the entire state, it is important to get a flu shot now if you have not done so already,” said CDPH Director and State Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Smith. “Although influenza season usually peaks between December and February, flu activity can occur as late as May, which means it is not too late to get vaccinated.”

It takes about two weeks after vaccination for the body to respond fully. Vaccine effectiveness does vary for the different strains and year by year. Data will be available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in February about vaccine effectiveness.

“Vaccination will prevent infection in a large number of cases. If disease does occur after vaccination, the vaccine can reduce the severity of flu symptoms,” said Dr. Smith. "Getting the flu shot is still the best way to protect yourself and others from flu.”

Some people are at high risk for serious flu-related complications that can lead to hospitalization and even death including:
• Pregnant women
• Children younger than 5, but especially children younger than 2 years old
• People 65 years of age and older
• People who have certain medical conditions, such as asthma, diabetes and heart disease.

For those at high risk of serious flu complications, getting vaccinated is especially important. It is also important for caregivers of anyone at high risk including children younger than 6 months, who are too young to get a flu vaccine.
Individuals in a high-risk group that experience symptoms of flu (fever, chills and feeling very tired accompanied by sore throat, muscle or body aches, headaches, or nasal congestion), should contact their health care provider early in the illness. Antiviral drugs can be prescribed by a physician, and work best if started within two days of getting sick. Individuals who are not in high risk groups and who have mild illness typically do not need medical care or antiviral drugs. These individuals should stay home and avoid contact with other people. Anyone who experiences more severe symptoms such as trouble breathing, pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen, difficulty eating or drinking, or confusion should contact their health care provider or seek emergency care.

To stop the spread of flu and other respiratory illnesses, you should also:
• Stay home while sick and limit contact with others
• Cover your cough or sneeze with your sleeve or disposable tissue
• Wash hands frequently and thoroughly with soap and warm water, or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth

CDPH closely tracks influenza and posts updated information on the CDPH Influenza website at the end of the work week. As of the most recent report, for the week ending December 30, 2017, 27 influenza-associated deaths in persons under 65 years of age were reported to CDPH. Only influenza deaths in persons less than 65 years are reported to CDPH so the total number of deaths due to influenza is higher.

Flu vaccine is available in many locations, including doctors’ offices, health departments, pharmacies, health centers and travel clinics, as well as at many employers and schools. Use the HealthMap Vaccine Finder at to find the nearest location where you and your family can get vaccinated.

For more information about influenza, visit CDPH’s website.

District Attorney Gregory D. Totten announced today that Dean Michael Poe (DOB 04/28/65), of Ventura, was sentenced to serve 120 days in jail and placed on formal probation for three years for his role in causing a 2014 explosion at Santa Clara Waste Water Company (“SCWWC”). This case was jointly prosecuted by the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office and the California Attorney General’s Office. On March 24, 2017, Poe pled guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to dispose of hazardous waste.

Poe was the former vice president of Oil and Gas Sales for SCWWC. On November 18, 2014, an explosion occurred at the SCWWC facility located at 815 Mission Rock Road in Santa Paula. Numerous employees as well as first responders were injured either by the initial explosion or by inhaling a toxic cloud of chlorine gas generated by the illegal disposal of hazardous chemicals that were present on site. In June 2014, Poe provided samples from SCWWC to a local environmental laboratory for testing. In July 2014, Poe was told by lab personnel that testing results for samples he provided for chemical analysis indicated the substances were hazardous waste. Poe failed to take any corrective action at SCWWC when he learned of these hazardous waste results and did not report this information to regulatory authorities.

In addition to the jail sentence, Poe was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, and victim restitution in an amount to be determined by the Court. Under the terms of his probation, Poe is prohibited from any employment involving the collection of laboratory samples to be used for waste testing.

Enlarge Photo

Rotorcraft Support, Inc. site at the southwest corner of River and D Streets were working on the new private heliport for a maintenance and repair facility for helicopters. The heliport is to be located within the Business Park Master Plan area on property owned by an affiliate of the Applicant. Two companies propose to locate at the site: Rotorcraft and The Guardian. Rotorcraft employs 58 full time employees who will relocate to Fillmore from Van Nuys. The Guardian is a fire helicopter company that is contracted to fight forest fires and has approximately 15 full time employees. The Guardian helicopters will be at fire sites 9 months out of the year. When not attending to fires, the Guardian employees will be in Fillmore training. Both of these businesses would move to the property in Phase 1. The project is to be constructed in two (2) phases. Phase 1 involves the construction of a 67,872 SF hangar, parking spaces, retaining walls, public improvements on River St. and constructing the full width of the D St. extension (from River Street to 460 feet south of River Street). Phase 2 consists of constructing a 45,066 SF hangar for the future undetermined tenant. The businesses would like to be allowed to operate from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Saturdays with allowance to perform work on Sundays during times of emergencies. The project site is 10.52 acres and can accommodate one landing pad with eight (8) helicopter parking areas. The flight paths will occur along the Santa Clara River with the helicopters approaching the site from a southerly direction. The flight paths will not be over the residential areas of Fillmore. Prior to flying helicopters from the property the Applicant is required to obtain approvals from the FAA, Caltrans (the Division of Aeronautics) and The Airport Land Commission. The project is providing a 10' concrete bike path on the south side of River Street in compliance with the Business Park Master Plan’s requirement for bike paths. A noise study was conducted which determined that the sounds anticipated to be generated by the project are at an acceptable level per the City Zoning Ordinance. Additionally, the Planning Commission recommended that a noise monitor be placed close to the helipad. Two Rivers Park will be protected by a buffer zone with employee and customer parking along D Street.

Bob Crum

Last week I opined that resolutions are merely wispy wishes made emotionally after a few strawberry margaritas. I stand by that!

How about goals? Nah. A goal needs an objective that is measurable and needs to be achievable by a hard date... i.e. deadline. So goals are seldom met and equally frivolous, IMO.

Suppose I had a goal of winning the Power Ball jackpot by December 31, 2017. Disregarding the staggering odds, I diligently played the game by buying tickets every week. Nevertheless, I did not achieve the goal. Depressing.

An alternative? Intentions. They don't need a hard date thus winning or losing is irrelevant. For example, I “intend” to win the Power Ball jackpot because I buy a ticket every week. If I win, great. If not, c'est la vie. The beauty of “intentions” is that they are lossless and perpetual.

When I began digital photography, Madame Digital seduced me. Crappy film photos meant wasted money. Crappy digital images could be deleted at no cost. So why not shoot 1000 photos a day if desired? I sometimes did but not without a cost as you'll see.

I began digital photography with trepidation because of costs. I have to produce high resolutions images for both clients and prints. Thus, I record RAW images which are large files. This required a beefy computer & image processing software.
No sooner had I bought my first digital camera, I went berserk photoing. And photoing. And photoing. I now have a gazillion photos stored!

After a shoot and downloading the photos to the computer, I first rate them. All #4-rated images get post processed for client or prints. Afterward, I back up “all” photos on two external hard drives. The result: Eighteen 3.5” 2TB (terabyte) hard drives and six 2.5” 1TB hard drives full of archived images. Remember... a gazillion photos!!

In a perfect world, I would have had time to go back and delete all those that were not rated which is the majority. However, because I'm constantly shooting assignments or for pleasure, or partying with mermaids, I seldom have time to delete unrated images. Besides, it's painful to “delete” anything so I don't. After all, I might one day “need” that image. Ha! That seldom happened in a decade so I could delete all the marginal images and probably not miss them.

Wait! I needed an image for Photo of the Week so I went to the archives (hard drive #12) and found an unrated photo of a seagull napping. I love it! I post processed it and here it is! A terrible mistake had I deleted it. See my dilemma? Nevertheless, too many photos are archived.

So, here in 2018 I “intend” to make an earnest effort to purge each hard drive of questionable images. But will I have time to review a gazillion images? Why bother? Hard drives are relatively inexpensive. So it's easy to rationalize that my time is far more valuable than the cost of hard drives. Thus it's now my intention to reconsider the other intention. I adore intentions!

Hopefully my missteps will serve as a lesson about what NOT to do as you embark on your new path of digital photography. Actually two lessons. Note that photos of a lifetime are priceless so back them up on two hard drives. One copy is not backing up. Furthermore, from the get-go initiate a routine of deleting obviously crappy photos before backing up the photos to archive. Just sayin'.

Happy photoing!

Send your comments, questions or suggestions to bob@fillmoregazette.com