Criminal Case On Hold For Newbury Park Man Charged With Murdering Brother

Monday December 09, 2024

(Photo courtesy VCSO)

     Updated--The criminal case against the Newbury Park man charged with murdering his younger brother is on hold after questions were raised about his mental competency.

     The Ventura County District Attorney's Office Monday filed charges of murder and corporal injury to a child against 24-year-old Zuberi Sharp in connection with the death of the 15-year-old.

     He is also facing several special allegations.

     But Sharp did not enter pleas to the charges after his attorney declared a doubt to his mental competency.

     Instead the judge suspended the criminal case and set January 2nd for a competency hearing.

     Sharp remains in jail without bail.

     Sharp is accused of using a pickaxe to strike the juvenile at the family home in the 400 block  of Jeanne Court in Newbury Park Thursday night.

     He then fled to nearby Newbury Park High School where the authorities found him naked on the football field and the took him into custody.

     Sharp is the son of Calvin Sharp who in 2007 used a meat cleaver to chase down and attack 6-year-old Sev'n Molina in Newbury Park, killing  the little boy.

     Molina's mother, who had ended a relationship with Sharp, was severely injured trying to protect her child and a neighbor woman was also severely injured trying to stop the attack on mother and son.

     Calvin Sharp was charged with first degree murder, two counts of attempted murder, and two counts of aggravated mayhem, plus several special circumstance allegations and other special allegations.

     The case wound its way through the courts for five years in Ventura County and all the way to the California Supreme Court.

     The issue was whether he was sane at the time of the attacks in 2007.

     Experts on both sides battled it out in court.

     It led to the state supreme court siding with the Ventura County DA in a major decision for prosecutors in such cases.

     Ultimately, Calvin Sharp admitted his crimes and let the trial judge decide the sanity issue. 

     The judge sided with the DA and ruled that Sharp was sane at the time of the crimes.

     The judge then sentenced him to life in prison with no chance of parole plus two additional life sentences.

     As recent as this year, Calvin Sharp has apparently been trying to get his convictions vacated and be re-sentenced but the judge denied the latest petition in April.

     Meanwhile, sheriff's investigators are trying to determine why Calvin Sharp's son, Zuberi Sharp, killed his 15-year-old brother Thursday night.