Oxnard Man Charged With Using Car To Commit Murder Instead Pleads Guilty To Lesser Charge

Tuesday September 24, 2024

      An Oxnard man who had been charged with murder for using his car to kill another man has instead been allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge.

     41-year-old Pedro Gutierrez Guzman pleaded guilty Monday to voluntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon in the May 11, 2019 death of 30-year-old Ricardo Torres Rojas of Oxnard.

     He also admitted several special allegations including use of a deadly weapon and having a prior violent serious felony.

     Prosecutors say that in the late morning of that day officers and other first responders arrived 1300 block of Bluebell Street and found Rojas down in the roadway.

     He was rushed to the trauma center at VCMC where he died.

     Detectives determined that Rojas has been struck by Guzman's vehicle in the west alley of the 2000 block of Mariposa Street and then dragged under the vehicle for over a block to Bluebell where Rojas became dislodged from the vehicle.

     Guzman then left the scene.

     Detectives talked with several people who provided what they termed valuable information and they also located video of the incident.

     Based on their investigation Oxnard police believed it was a homicide and not a traffic accident.

     Guzman was arrested almost four weeks later at the Oxnard police station and charged with murder.

      Since then he's been in the Ventura County Jail with bail set at $500,000.

      He is now being held without bail and is due to be sentenced on November 6th.