Oxnard Man Found Guilty of Murder in Robbery Plot : Crime: George Pena, 23, is cleared of a special allegation punishable by life in prison. He and three others were charged in slaying of a landlord.

After three weeks of deliberations, a Ventura County jury Monday found an Oxnard man guilty of masterminding a robbery plot that led to the shooting death of a Port Hueneme landlord last year.

The jury, however, exonerated 23-year-old George Pena of a special allegation that could have put him in prison for life without parole.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn expressed disappointment in the verdicts, saying Pena had no regard for his victim’s life and deserved to be locked behind bars for life.

Pena, who covered his face with his hands in apparent disappointment at the guilty verdicts, faces 25 years to life for a murder conviction and another 2 1/2 years for attempted robbery.

Pena’s mother, who sat in the back of the courtroom, wiped away tears as Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath announced the verdicts.

Pena and three defendants were charged in the death of Richard Schell, a 52-year-old Santa Barbara man who was fatally shot Dec. 1, 1992, after collecting rent from tenants in a Port Hueneme apartment building.

Schell died of a single gunshot that tore into his shoulder and passed through his heart. The robbers fled after the shooting, leaving behind $2,000 in cash in Schell’s truck.

Prosecutors argued that Pena conceived the plot to hold up Schell and persuaded the three younger defendants to aid him.

Glynn called Monday’s verdicts the latest in a string of “curious” jury decisions in the Schell slaying case.

The prosecutor noted that the alleged gunman, Gilbert Martinez, was found innocent of murder and instead faces eight years in state prison on the lesser offense of attempted robbery. Meanwhile another defendant, Jose Luis Arreguin--who joined the scheme to rob Schell at the last moment and apparently had no role in hatching it--was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

“It’s ironic that the least culpable defendant received the most harsh sentence,” Glynn said.

Prosecutors labeled Pena as the author of the fateful robbery plan and charged him with a special allegation that, in essence, meant he was a calculating criminal with no regard for human life.

Deputy Public Defender Bryant A. Villagran said he was pleased his client was exonerated of that special charge.

Yet, Villagran said he believed his client should have been acquitted of all wrongdoing in the case. Villagran built his case around the argument that Pena had no knowledge that one of his cohorts had a gun during the robbery.

“I felt the evidence was there for them to find him not guilty,” Villagran said outside court, after meeting privately with the jury for about a half-hour.

The prosecution pinned its case on the testimony of David Soto, 20, a co-defendant who pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree murder in exchange for testimony against his three accomplices.

Soto testified that Pena made sure in advance that a gun was brought for the attempted robbery of Schell.

Jurors told Villagran that Soto lacked credibility, Villagran said. But he also said jurors told him that no single factor led to their verdicts.

Prosecutor Glynn, however, said it was clear that Soto’s lack of credibility with the jury hurt the prosecution’s chance at winning a conviction on the special allegation.

“The crucial thing is they did not believe Soto as to the discussion about the gun,” Glynn said.

Soto, whose sentencing date will be set today, faces 16 years to life in state prison.

Martinez, the alleged triggerman who was convicted of the lesser charge of attempted robbery, is undergoing a psychological evaluation at the California Youth Authority.

Pena will be sentenced on Dec. 17 after a probation report is completed.