5 Die in 2 Apparent Murder-Suicides Only Hours Apart : Tragedy: A Simi Valley man turns a gun on his wife and then himself Thursday night. Later, a Santa Paula man kills his wife, her acquaintance and himself.

Five people were slain in two murder-suicides that occurred less than three hours apart in Ventura County, authorities said Friday.

The carnage brought the number of homicides in Ventura County during the first two weeks of the year to five, one quarter of the number that occurred in all of 1990, according to the Ventura County coroner’s office.

A 41-year-old man apparently distraught over the breakup of his marriage shot his estranged wife and an acquaintance to death in Ventura early Friday before turning the gun on himself as police officers shouted for him to surrender, authorities said.

Late Thursday evening, a 43-year-old Simi Valley man shot and killed his wife, telephoned a friend to tell her of the crime and then took his own life, authorities said.

“It is bizarre odds that we would have had two similar-type situations just a few hours apart,” Deputy Coroner Craig Stevens said.

At 12:11 a.m. Friday, Ventura police officers responded to reports of a gunshot and a woman’s screams at a duplex in the 400 block of South Arcade Drive, Lt. Brad Talbot said.

They discovered a van backing out of the driveway and ordered the driver, Tony Luna Garcia of Santa Paula, to halt, Talbot said. After hesitating, the man stopped the van, in which his wife, Flava Elnora Garcia, 42, was sitting in the passenger seat, Talbot said.

As officers yelled for Garcia to stop and put his hands up, the man reached up with his right hand, put a gun to his wife’s temple and shot her in the head, Talbot said. He then took the .357-Magnum revolver and blasted himself in the temple, authorities said.

When officers reached the van, they found Gaylord Gene Edgington, a 43-year-old Ventura insurance agent, crumpled behind the front seat, killed by a bullet in his temple. Paramedics pronounced all three dead at the scene of the killings.

Investigators said Flava Garcia, a teller at Citizens State Bank of Santa Paula, had been out with Edgington Thursday night and that the two returned to her Ventura duplex in separate cars.

Detectives said they believe Garcia either had lain in wait for his wife or followed her and Edgington, with whom he was acquainted. Tony Garcia then apparently confronted Edgington and ordered him to the back seat of the van, Talbot said. Edgington is survived by a wife and a 17-year-old son, authorities said.

Santa Paula police said they had responded to reports of disputes between Tony and Flava Garcia, who had been married for five years, and between him and a former wife. Cmdr. Bob Gonzales said Tony Garcia had once been arrested in a domestic disturbance.

In July, Flava Garcia moved out of the Santa Paula house she had shared with her husband, a field operator at Arco in Santa Paula, according to Tony Garcia’s brother, Louie, 39.

Around Christmas, he said, Flava Garcia moved back in with her husband, and Tony Garcia told his brother that he and Flava were thinking of renewing their wedding vows. But the plans were off by New Year’s Day and she moved back to Ventura.

“That might have been part of the reason it was so hard to let go,” said Louie Garcia, who described his brother as personable but jealous. “He had that understanding they were going to live the rest of their lives together.”

Tony Garcia had two children from two previous marriages, and Flava Garcia had two daughtersfrom a previous marriage, friends and authorities said.

The two other deaths occurred at the Simi Valley house of James and Gayla White, authorities said.

Police discovered the bodies of the couple on the living room floor of their house in the 2300 block of St. Clair Avenue about 9:30 p.m., Police Sgt. Jeff Malgren said.

Gayla White, 41, had been shot several times in the head and body with a 12-gauge shotgun, Malgren said. James White, 43, had been shot once in the head. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.

The couple’s 16-year-old son, Shane, was not home at the time of the shootings, Malgren said. Police said they still had not established a motive for the deaths.

“The only thing we have been able to determine is that it was a murder-suicide,” Detective Tony Harper said.

Harper said James White had called a friend of the couple in the San Fernando Valley on Thursday night and told her that he had just shot and killed his wife and that he was going to kill himself.

Harper said the couple’s friend, who was not identified, immediately called police, who received a similar call from a neighbor a short time later.

Co-workers of the couple, both of whom were employed at the Los Angeles Times’ San Fernando Valley plant in Chatsworth, said the Whites had recently been experiencing marital problems. James White had worked as a truck mechanic at the plant since 1984, and Gayla White had been employed as a clerk in the production department for 1 1/2 years.

Colleagues said they last saw Gayla White on Thursday night at a retirement party for one of her supervisors. They said White left the Granada Hills restaurant where the party was held after she received a call from her husband.

Neighbors and friends expressed shock Friday.

“I don’t think there’s anyone who was more surprised than I was,” said John Holst, who has lived next-door to the Whites for more than 10 years. “He was a prince of a guy, and they were a very close-knit family.”

Tim King, who worked and socialized with Jim White for the past six years, described him as an excellent worker who was liked by everyone.

“I know he loved his son, and I know he loved his wife,” King said. “I admired Jim a whole lot. I’m going to miss him.”