Police Seeking Clues to Killing of Oxnard Man

By DAVID KELLY

March 26, 2002 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The fatal shooting of a 61-year-old mentally disabled man over the weekend continues to baffle Oxnard police, who can find no motive for the brutal attack.

Isaac Hughes, who police said had the IQ of a 7-year-old, was shot to death and his house firebombed about 4:30 a.m. Saturday in the 1800 block of Ferrara Way.

Police said they have no evidence that the crime was racially motivated; Hughes was black and the neighborhood is predominantly Latino. Investigators also have found no gang connection.

“We haven’t been able to show what happened; it’s still a whodunit now,” said Oxnard Police Det. Randey Cole, who is investigating the case. “It’s strange that someone would pick him. Maybe they hit the wrong house. We are looking at all these different angles.”

Oxnard Fire Department investigator Rod Thorpe said the Molotov cocktail used in the attack was powerful enough to have burned down the house, killing everyone inside. The firebomb was made from a beer bottle with a makeshift wick and flammable liquid.

“[The residents] were very lucky they discovered it as early as they did,” he said. “Had it gotten in a bit farther and hit the carpet it could have been disastrous.”

It is unclear how many people were involved in the attack, in which eight gunshots were fired through Hughes’ bedroom window, authorities said.

The .22-caliber bullets left a line of holes in the wall over the bed where Hughes was sitting and listening to gospel music. One bullet hit him in the chest, authorities said. At least one other round went through the wall into the next room, narrowly missing Hughes’ sleeping mother and niece.

Next, the firebomb was hurled through the kitchen window in the front of the house. The noise woke the family, who doused the flames and then checked on Hughes.

“I knocked on his door and called, ‘Isaac! Isaac!’” said his niece, who declined to give her name. “When I saw him, I knew he was killed. He was slumped over the bed. No one could live through that.”

The family members, six of whom live in the ranch-style house, gathered in the kitchen Monday looking at the blackened linoleum where the firebomb landed. Angelus Daly, Hughes’ sister, said she wants to move, after having lived there for 30 years.

“Maybe we can go to Camarillo. I am so dumbfounded by this,” she said. “Isaac was into church. He loved church and listening to gospel music.”

The family said they had not been racially harassed and didn’t believe race played a part in the killing.

Vasti Taylor, 87, said her son Isaac was born in Houston and had lived in Oxnard for 31 years.

“He was handicapped, but the sweetest person you ever knew,” she said. “He was like a child.”

Aspen Bailey, 16, another niece of the victim, said that two days before the shooting Hughes was sitting outside the house when two men got into a car owned by a family member.

“They knew he was slow, so they told him they were taking it to get fixed,” she said. “And they stole it.”

Some relatives and neighbors think the killing was an attempt to keep Hughes from talking. But police said they had no reports of a stolen car from the neighborhood.

The attacker, or attackers, may have fired through drawn blinds and may not have known Hughes was inside, Cole said.

“Somebody knows what happened, either the relatives or the neighbors. We have no way to tie it all together yet,” he said.

Several remembered Hughes as a man who liked to sit in his frontyard, play guitar and sing Christian songs.

“I’ve lived here for 30 years and can’t imagine why anyone would want to kill Isaac,” said neighbor Mancel Canchila, 45. “Everyone walking by, he would say good morning to.”

David Davis, 33, Hughes’ nephew, echoed those sentiments.

“I think it was very selfish of someone to do this,” he said. “He didn’t deserve what happened to him. He didn’t mess with anyone.”