By Redacción
Redaccion@latinocc.com
Antoine Nehme, 73, of Victorville, has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for orchestrating the 2004 murder of Dennis Wood, a Moorpark businessman found dead in his home, Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko announced Wednesday.
A Ventura County jury convicted Nehme on March 17, 2025, of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit a crime, and solicitation of murder. Jurors also found true the special allegation that Nehme ordered the killing for financial gain. Judge Paul Baelly upheld all aggravating factors, including that the murder was premeditated and committed with planning, sophistication, and extreme violence.
Senior Deputy District Attorney John Barrick of the Major Crimes Homicides Unit prosecuted the case.
“I am so very grateful to the members of the Ventura County Cold Case Unit for never giving up their pursuit of justice for Dennis Wood,” Barrick said. “Without their diligence and dedication, this case never would have been solved. Dennis Wood was a good and honorable man who didn’t deserve to die the way he did. I am glad his family was able to see his murderers finally brought to justice after 21 long years.”
Deputies from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office discovered Wood’s body on April 16, 2004, during a welfare check at his Moorpark home. He was found lying in the doorway, with a large pool of blood near his head. An autopsy confirmed he had been shot twice in the head and once in the chest. The case went cold for several years.
Investigators later uncovered a financial motive behind the killing. Wood, who ran a prepaid phone card business, had given Nehme $28,700 in cash for an unspecified business venture. At the time, Nehme owned a gas station in Ojai and had previously purchased phone cards from Wood. Rather than repay his debt, Nehme arranged for Wood to be killed to eliminate the obligation.
A key break in the case came in February 2010, when a suspect in an unrelated Los Angeles murder revealed that his co-defendant, Alex Bracamonte, had killed Wood at Nehme’s request. Bracamonte, who worked for Nehme at the Ojai gas station, later confessed to the killing during an August 23, 2023, interview with detectives, providing details only the perpetrator would know.
Bracamonte, who is already serving time for a 2006 murder in Los Angeles County, was charged with Wood’s murder and pleaded guilty on May 8, 2024. He testified against Nehme during trial and was sentenced to 15 years to life on May 7, 2025. That sentence will be served consecutively to his existing term.
