Police Report Big Leap in 1991 Homicides : Crime: Slayings in the county soar to 48 from 20 in 1990 for no clear reason. A sheriff’s official calls the first gang-related drive-by killings last year ‘ominous’ and ‘frightening.’

Homicides in Ventura County sharply increased last year, ending with the slaying in December of Santa Paula auto dealer Tony Bridges.

Bridges’ death was the county’s 48th homicide in 1991, more than double the 20 recorded in 1990.

Since the 1930s, when the Ventura County medical examiner-coroner’s office began keeping records, the highest number of homicides in one year was 59, in both 1974 and 1979, Deputy Coroner Craig L. Stevens said.

Los Angeles County, by comparison, had 2,401 deaths that were listed as possible homicides in 1991, an all-time record, according to the coroner’s office.

The Ventura County district attorney’s office historically files charges in at least half the homicide cases each year, said Ronald C. Janes, senior deputy district attorney. For example, he said, of the 36 homicides in the first nine months of 1991, charges have been filed in 18.

Eight of the 48 victims were slain by assailants who then killed themselves.

Explaining the sharp upturn in the Ventura County homicide rate is difficult because of disparate motives involved in a killing, law enforcement officials said.

“Homicides don’t fit neatly into trends,� said Lt. Joe Harwell, chief of the sheriff’s major crimes unit.

But he said Ventura County had its first gang-related drive-by killings--two on April 7 in the Saticoy area and one on May 31 in Thousand Oaks.

“That’s very frightening,� Harwell said. “That’s something new in our jurisdiction. That would be an ominous trend.�

The Sheriff’s Department patrols more than half of the county, an area containing about 43% of the population, including unincorporated areas and Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Camarillo, Fillmore and Ojai.

Oxnard, Ventura, Santa Paula, Simi Valley and Port Hueneme have their own police departments and report annual crime figures separately.

Except for the homicide count, 1991 crime statistics for the five cities with their own police agencies are not complete. Their estimates were based on the first nine to 11 months of 1991, compared to the same periods in 1990.

Because of a computer problem, the sheriff could only report statistics on crimes other than homicides for the first six months of 1991. Even so, those figures showed that major crimes were running ahead of 1990.

For example, Assistant Sheriff Richard Bryce said, rapes were up from 31 to 38, robberies up from 70 to 73 and aggravated assaults up from 286 to 327 during the first half of 1991, compared to the same period in 1990.

Of the serious crimes committed in the county in 1991:

* Robberies jumped 50% in Oxnard and 89% in Santa Paula.

* Thefts of vehicles increased 77% in Port Hueneme, 43% in Simi Valley, 16% in Ventura and 36% in the cities and unincorporated areas patrolled by the sheriff.

“Chopping up cars and selling the parts is a big business,� Port Hueneme Police Sgt. Fernando Estrella said.

* Aggravated assaults skyrocketed 125% in Port Hueneme, from 51 in 1990 to 115 last year. They also rose 30% in Oxnard, 13% in Ventura and 14% in the sheriff’s jurisdictions.

* Simi Valley had six homicides in 1991 compared to one in 1990.

* Santa Paula recorded 10 rapes last year, but none in 1990.

* The FBI recorded 52 bank robberies in Ventura County in 1991 compared to 43 in 1990. That was still well under the 76 bank heists reported in the county in 1989.

However, the cities of Ventura and Oxnard showed some progress in two major crime categories.

Rapes in Ventura showed a 23% decline compared to the same nine-month period in 1990.

Oxnard, historically the city with the county’s highest crime rate, was not expected to show much of an increase in vehicle thefts in 1991. Last year’s vehicle theft level was running about even with the 976 thefts recorded in the same 10-month period in 1990, said David G. Keith, Oxnard Police Department crime analyst.

Keith said Oxnard had big increases in vehicle thefts in recent years. For example, the 1990 figure represented a 29% increase over 1989.

Simi Valley Police Department crime analyst Debbie Ruud recently discovered that more than half of the vehicles stolen in Simi Valley in 1991 were Toyotas, and 80% of them were pickups.

The sheriff, too, recorded a sharp increase in auto thefts for the first six months of 1991--403 compared to 296 for the same period in 1990.

Bryce, the assistant sheriff, said he wasn’t surprised at the figures.

Police agencies nationwide are reporting soaring vehicle thefts for 1991, he said. “It’s a tremendous national epidemic.�