Notable Cases

The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office successfully prosecuted one of the largest real estate investment fraud schemes uncovered in the county involving victim losses exceeding $3 million.

In August 2007, Calvin Sharp chased down, attacked, and brutally killed a 6-year-old boy, Sev'n Molina, with a meat cleaver. When Sev'n's mother, Sandra Ruiz, tried to stop the attack, Sharp attacked her as well, causing major life-long injuries. A neighbor, Diane Cox, also attempted to intervene and suffered serious injuries at the hands of Sharp.

Victim Beatrice Bellis, age 87, was deaf and functionally mute. She lived at the Mar Vista apartment complex, an elder care facility located in Port Hueneme, California. In June 1993, an unknown assailant slipped into her unlocked apartment, stabbed her repeatedly with a large kitchen knife, and raped her as she bled to death. The perpetrator cleaned up in the bathroom then fled from the building in the dead of night. Despite an intense investigation and neighborhood canvass, the Port Hueneme Police Department was initially unable to develop evidence leading to a culpable suspect.

The Ventura County District Attorney's Office's Consumer and Environmental Unit, with 19 other California District Attorneys, the California Attorney General, and the city attorneys in San Diego and Los Angeles settled a civil law enforcement action filed against Target Corporation.