2 Cleared as Murder Suspects in Stabbing

Two men arrested in connection with a weekend stabbing in Thousand Oaks were cleared Tuesday as murder suspects.

Authorities now say the men are only witnesses and that an unidentified third man has emerged as the lone suspect.

Sheriff’s investigators declined to release the name of the suspect because the man was not in custody as of Tuesday evening. Authorities also did not give any estimates on when the man might be arrested.

The men cleared in the case--42-year-old Doroteo Gonzales and 29-year-old Manuel Calvillo--remained in Ventura County Jail on Tuesday at the order of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The INS routinely puts holds on inmates it suspects may be in the United States illegally.

Gonzales and Calvillo, who live in the same Thousand Oaks home, were to have been arraigned Tuesday, but witness statements led detectives to conclude the two were bystanders in the June 26 attack, not participants, Sheriff’s Capt. Keith Parks said.

Antonio Gonzalez, a 45-year-old Thousand Oaks gardener, died around 9 p.m. last Saturday in the 800 block of Avenida de los Arboles.

Gonzalez had multiple stab wounds in his chest and abdomen inflicted by a large kitchen knife, authorities said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Authorities suspect Gonzalez’s death was the culmination of an argument that escalated into violence.

Eight people were originally detained for questioning in the attack, and all but Gonzales and Calvillo were released earlier. Parks said the current suspect was not among the six witnesses who were let go.

More than a dozen adults and children share a rented house on Avenida de los Arboles with Gonzales and Calvillo. Gonzalez, the victim, lived in the house at one time but was renting a room across the street. He and the two cleared men were from the same town in Mexico, authorities said.

Neighbors have said that the house was often the site of loud, weekend-long parties. According to property records, the three-bedroom, single-story home is owned by Conejo Valley Unified School District trustee Dolores Didio and her husband, Vincent, a doctor.

Gonzalez’s death marks the first homicide in Thousand Oaks in more than two years and its 15th since 1988. The city typically ranks among the safest in the nation.

In April 1997, bank teller Monica Leech was killed during a robbery at Western Financial Bank. A more recent fatal shooting, in May 1998, was not classified as a homicide. In that case, police shot 26-year-old Derek Myers, who pointed a paint-ball gun at officers after leading them on a predawn vehicle chase.

Ritsch is a Times Community News reporter. Dirmann is a Times staff writer. Times staff writer Tracy Wilson also contributed to this story.