Crime Column Tips the Odds Against Fugitives

A weekly news column featuring information and photos of wanted fugitives has helped local authorities nab more than 80 hard-core criminals, sheriff’s deputies said Monday.

The newspaper column, which appears in The Times and other publications and began in late 1996, offers a reward from Ventura County Crime Stoppers for tips leading to the arrest of wanted felons.

“It’s been phenomenal,” said Sheriff’s Deputy Keith Lazz, who coordinates the Crime Stoppers program.

Of the 142 fugitives featured in the column, investigators have arrested 83, said Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Worthan, of the department’s fugitive warrant detail.

“We’ve gotten one or two murderers, lots of child molesters and a lot of felons with prior convictions,” Worthan said.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department provides newspapers with a weekly list of wanted fugitives along with their photos. Crime Stoppers offers cash rewards for tips.

The features often include information about three or four suspects wanted for everything from probation violations to rape and murder. A phone number for Crime Stoppers is included that allows callers to give information on the suspects anonymously.

“We’ve had tips that have led to arrests in Florida and Mobile, Ala. We’ve had tips that have led to the arrest of a murderer,” said Lazz.

Although Crime Stoppers is a private, nonprofit organization, Deputy Lazz helps to coordinate and then funnel the information to sheriff’s investigators each week. He fields more than 60 tips a month, he said.

“A lot of people don’t want the reward, they just want to help,” Lazz said.

Still the organization doles out a healthy sum for information each month, giving tipsters rewards ranging from $50 to $1,000 for information that has led to the arrest of suspects, he said.

And the information has been valuable, officials said.

Early last year, a tip led investigators to Corey Len Robinson, 26, who is now being tried in Los Angeles in the slaying of 18-year-old Gloria De la Cruzof Oxnard. The popular mariachi singer’s body was dumped last year in an alley in Los Angeles and set on fire. It took investigators more than a week to identify her.

The person who tipped authorities about Robinson’s whereabouts received $1,000, officials said.

A tip also led to the arrest of James Paul Fletcher, 56, and his wife, Tracey Laverne Fletcher, 42.

James Fletcher, who was on trial for child molestation, posted bail and then left the county. His wife faces charges that she stole several thousand dollars’ worth of property from an elderly woman she was providing home health care to, officials said.

The two were stopped as they tried to cross the Canadian border, Worthan said.

“This has been a pretty successful program for us,” Worthan said. “We’ve been able to track a lot of these people down even though we’ve exhausted other leads. It’s not like trying to find other people. They’re just in the wind. They don’t have jobs, property or local addresses. A lot of them are career criminals.”

At last count, local authorities had more than 3,000 outstanding felony warrants, he said.