VENTURA : Murder Charge Against 2 Dismissed

A murder charge was dismissed Thursday against two Ventura men accused of killing a man during a $15 robbery because the judge said he is not certain how the victim received his fatal injury.

Superior Court Judge Charles W. Campbell said he is convinced that Thomas Shoop was kicked during the February robbery, but he is uncertain whether the assault or a bathroom fall several hours later caused Shoop’s spleen to rupture, which caused Shoop to bleed to death.

Campbell’s ruling leaves Everado Mondragon and Jose Sanchez facing only robbery charges in the attack on Shoop. Mondragon, 35, also faces unrelated drug charges.

“I’m not happy,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Terence M. Kilbride said of the ruling. “I’m not surprised, but I’m not happy.”

Campbell, who is hearing the trial without a jury, dismissed the murder charge after the prosecution had finished presenting its case.

Shoop died Feb. 21, one day after he was beaten and robbed by two men. He immediately reported the holdup to police and identified the defendants as the men who stole his $15.

Shoop declined medical treatment at that time, as well as during the early morning hours of Feb. 21, when he complained of pain.

His roommate, Richard Graham, testified that he heard a loud noise in the bathroom and later found a broken toilet seat in the bathroom and fecal matter smeared on the floor.

The coroner who performed the autopsy on Shoop testified that his injuries were consistent with having been kicked, but he could not say definitely that that is how the fatal injury was received.

Defense attorneys argued that Shoop ruptured his spleen in the bathroom fall.