2 Robbers Get Lengthy Prison Terms in Death of Accomplice : Ojai: A judge rejects defense pleas to ignore murder verdicts against Frank Stoddard and Timothy Antonelli.

Two men were sentenced to long prison terms Tuesday in the slaying of their accomplice during a robbery at a New Year’s party in Ojai.

In sentencing Frank Stoddard and Timothy Antonelli, Judge Charles R. McGrath of Ventura County Superior Court rejected defense pleas to ignore the murder conviction and sentence the pair only for related assault and robbery charges.

“A sentence on the murder count is not appropriate,” said Charles L. Cassy, Antonelli’s attorney, noting that his client had slipped away from the robbery scene before fellow robber Ron Brown was killed. “In terms of culpability, he did not kill anyone.”

Stoddard’s attorney, Steven D. Powell, made the same point. He reminded the judge that it was a party guest, not the defendants, who shot and killed Brown. “A murder sentence would be disproportionate to what he did,” Powell said.

McGrath, however, did not dispute the jury’s finding that the defendants’ culpability in the robbery made them guilty in the death that resulted. The judge sentenced both men to 25 years to life in prison on the murder charge.

In addition, Stoddard got five years because a gun was used in the crime, 10 1/3 years because of several related counts of assault, burglary, robbery and conspiracy, and two more years because of prior prison terms.

Antonelli, now 22, will be eligible for parole about his 40th birthday, officials said. Stoddard, 28, will be at least 54 before he is released. If either defendant regains his freedom, he will be on parole for life, the judge said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn said the sentences were just. He told the judge that Stoddard deserved the additional, consecutive sentences. “What Stoddard did was absolutely outrageous,” Glynn said. “He engaged in violence on everyone in that house.”

According to testimony in the two-week trial, Antonelli and Stoddard learned about the all-night, drugs-and-alcohol party and decided to rob it. In a new disclosure, Stoddard told an investigator that they expected one of the guests to have $80,000 in drug money, according to a probation report.

“I was on the run and 80 grand looked mighty good to me,” Stoddard said, according to the report. A self-employed tattoo artist, Stoddard had been paroled a few months earlier after serving three years for a robbery conviction, the report said. He had already missed appointments with his parole officer, the report said.

Stoddard and Antonelli picked up Brown, armed themselves with a pistol and shotgun and arrived at the Park Road house about 6 a.m. Jan. 1, according to trial testimony. When the door was opened for Antonelli, the other two burst in, demanding money and threatening to kill anyone who refused their demands.

Stoddard said Brown directed the operation, which he described as “bad guys against bad guys,” according to the report. One of the guests managed to wrest away the shotgun and shoot both Brown and Stoddard.

Brown, who at 22 already had a lengthy criminal record, died at the scene. Stoddard, wounded in the abdomen, was found hiding in a yard next door. Antonelli escaped but was arrested about 10 days later at his girlfriend’s home in Ventura.

Antonelli, a Ventura resident, told the probation investigator that he had met Stoddard only two weeks earlier when his girlfriend got a tattoo from him. He had known Brown about a week, he said. Antonelli, whose criminal record was described as minor by probation officials, insisted that he took no part in robbing the party and just happened to arrive when the robbers did.

He expressed no remorse at Brown’s death, however. “He had it coming . . . you live by the sword, you die by the sword,” Antonelli said, according to the probation report.

Stoddard, a Tulare County native who has already served time in both state and federal prisons, also was philosophical in his interview with the investigator.

“I did the crime, now I’ve got to do the time,” he said.