OJAI : 2 Indicted in Death During Robbery

Under a new state law aimed at reducing preliminary hearings, two Ventura men have been indicted in the death of an alleged accomplice during a New Year’s Day robbery in Ojai.

Timothy Antonelli, 24, and Frank Stoddard, 28, already were charged in a criminal complaint with murder in the death of Ron Brown, 22. Rather than hold a preliminary hearing before a Municipal Court judge, prosecutors decided to present the case to the grand jury, Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn said.

Proposition 115, approved by voters last June, permits greater use of grand juries to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to try a suspect in Superior Court.

“This gets it into Superior Court faster,” Glynn said. Antonelli and Stoddard were indicted on Thursday and pleaded not guilty on Friday. Their trial is set for April 28 before Judge Lawrence Storch.

The 15-count indictment also charges the pair with robbery, burglary, assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery. They are being held in the Ventura County Jail with bail set at $250,000.

Investigators said the three men, wearing ski masks, burst into a party early Jan. 1 and ordered guests to lie on the floor. Two of the guests suffered gunshot wounds and three were struck on the head with a gun, investigators said.

The robbery was foiled when one of the guests shot Brown, who died, and Stoddard, who was wounded in the groin. Although they did not fire the fatal shot, Antonelli and Stoddard are charged with murder because their alleged participation in the robbery led to the death, Glynn said.

Antonelli fled the party but was arrested Jan. 11 at the Ventura residence of his girlfriend, Lori Halpin, 19, when deputies picked her up on a traffic warrant.

Halpin was charged with being an accessory to robbery for allegedly sheltering Antonelli, but Glynn said the charge was dropped after investigators learned that the traffic warrant had been recalled but had not been purged from a computer. As a result, the search of Halpin’s residence was illegal and the results would not have been admissible in court, Glynn said.