Teen-Age Robbers Sought in Landlord’s Slaying

Port Hueneme police on Wednesday were looking for several teen-agers suspected of slaying a Santa Barbara landlord as he sat parked in his truck after collecting thousands of dollars in rent from tenants.

Richard Albert Schell, 55, died of a single gunshot wound to his heart at 7:52 p.m. Tuesday, about 45 minutes after police received reports of the shooting in the 300 block of B Street, said Deputy Coroner Jim Wingate.

Police believe that the suspects were after the money Schell routinely collected on the first of each month from tenants of four apartment buildings he owned in Ventura County. The youths apparently smashed in the driver’s side window of Schell’s Ford Ranger pickup truck, shot him and then smashed in the passenger’s side window in an attempt to gain access to the vehicle, officials said.

“The robbers may have known he was carrying a large amount of cash,” said Sgt. Ted Snyder, who is heading the investigation.

Snyder declined to say whether any cash or property had been taken from the truck. But Schell’s brother, Tom, a homicide detective from Olympia, Wash., said police told him Wednesday that several thousand dollars were found at the scene.

“The robbers may have been scared off before they could get anything,” Tom Schell said.

Tom Schell said his brother was a cautious man who routinely drove to a busy street after collecting rents to park his truck and fill out paperwork.

“He didn’t want to sit parked on a dark street with all that money,” Tom Schell said. “And he always locked his doors. That’s why they had to break out the windows.”

Schell was parked a block from the modest apartment building he owned in the 200 block of C Street when the shooting occurred, police said. Witnesses told police that they did not see the shooting, but saw three or four juveniles running from the scene.

Schell was unconscious when police arrived, Snyder said. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, he said. The weapon, a .45-caliber handgun, has not been recovered, police said.

Martha Garcia, who lived in the neatly kept apartment building owned by Schell on C street, said many people knew that he came by on the first of the month to collect rent. His tenants paid him by cash or money order, Garcia said.

“He always came at seven,” said Garcia, who wept when she heard the news. “I waited, but he didn’t show up.”

Garcia and other tenants described Schell as a benevolent landlord who regularly stopped by to fix things and often kept candy in his pocket to give to children. Schell had given her a break when she moved in, Garcia said, and accepted a $750 deposit instead of the $1,000 he normally asked for.

“I had all the rest of the money ready for him,” Garcia said. “I couldn’t wait to give it to him.”

“He was the best manager I’ve known,” said Rosalinda Valadez, another tenant. “He was never in a bad mood. I can’t believe this happened.”

Besides the eight-unit apartment building in Port Hueneme, Schell owned three apartment buildings in Oxnard and Ventura, his brother said. He was a retired electronics production manager and used the rental revenue to supplement his retirement income, Tom Schell said.

Both he and his brother had previously lived in Ventura County, Tom Schell said. Richard Schell moved to Santa Barbara in 1970, but Tom worked as a Ventura County sheriff’s deputy for nine years before leaving for Olympia in 1978, he said.

“The stupid thing is I used to patrol that area (in Port Hueneme) 20 years ago,” Tom Schell said. “I never thought I’d be back here with this type of tragedy. This is senseless.”

Besides his brother, Richard Schell is survived by his wife, Liliana, three children and a sister.

It was the second homicide in the usually sleepy city of 20,000 in five days. Ramiro Mendoza, a 33-year-old roofer, was found in a closet in his apartment in the 800 block of Jane Drive on Friday, dead from multiple gunshot wounds.

Police believe that Mendoza had been shot with a .22-caliber handgun sometime the previous day. Officials had no suspects in that slaying as of Wednesday. Before this week’s killings, the last murder in Port Hueneme occurred in July, 1990, Snyder said.

“It’s not a crime trend,” he said. “We’re just having a bad week.”

Times staff writer Peggy Y. Lee contributed to this story.