3 Seabees arrested in Camarillo slaying
By Daniel Wolowicz camarillo@theacorn.com

DANIEL WOLOWICZ/Acorn Newspapers INVESTIGATION-Detectives with the Ventura County Sheriff's Department's Major Crimes Unit inspect the driveway where Camarillo resident John Marmo was shot to death last Friday.

Naval Construction Battalion mechanics Rebecca Braswell and Shannon Butler were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of murder in the Dec. 1 fatal shooting of John Marmo, 27, in Camarillo, police said.

Seth Hardy, 20, also was arrested Tuesday and charged with attempted murder and the use of a destructive device and explosive to injure/destroy in an alleged earlier attempt on Marmo's life, police said.    

 

The three arrested were all Seabees.

Capt. Ron Nelson with the Ventura County Sheriff's Department said Marmo found the bomb on Oct. 28 and a subsequent investigation led to Hardy's arrest.

Marmo, Braswell's ex-husband, was found shot to death last Friday in front of the condominium he rented on the 1200 block of Mission Verde Drive.

Neighbors called police just before 6 a.m. after hearing gunshots, authorities said.

Witnesses told police they saw a gray sedan leave the scene of the crime.

Detectives with the Ventura County Sheriff's Department's Major Crime Unit are still investigating the shooting, Nelson said.

Braswell, 26, and Butler, 23, friends, face murder charges, while Butler also is charged with two counts of attempted murder in connection with the alleged bombing attempt.

Nelson wouldn't say what type of explosive was involved.

Residents of the quiet Mission Oaks neighborhood said they were shocked by the early morning slaying and that they didn't notice any unusual activity at Marmo's home leading up to the shooting.

For the past two years, Marmo had been involved in a custody battle with Braswell over their 4-year-old daughter.

According to Teri Reid, a Navy spokeswoman, the daughter was living with Braswell at the Port Hueneme Naval Base. Ventura County Child Protective Services took custody of the child, Reid said.

Reid said both women worked at Port Hueneme. Braswell had been in the Navy since 2000. Butler, who lived on the Point Mugu Naval Base, enlisted in 2003. Because the shooting took place off base, the women will be tried in Ventura County Superior Court.

Although his visitation rights had been limited since the 2004 divorce from Braswell, Marmo was awarded joint custody of his daughter on Oct. 31--just days before the bombing attempt, according to court records.

Gina Berry, Marmo's attorney during his divorce and for part of the custody battle, said she believed the custody fight caused the shooting.

"I think she (Braswell) was involved in it in some manner," Berry said. "That's my personal opinion. Not based on any facts, but based on my assessment of the case. She did not want John to have any custody with his daughter, and she started the case off with that type of animosity."

In late April, Braswell and her daughter failed to appear in court after Marmo had submitted another request for custody. Court records show that the judge ordered the Ventura County district attorney's Child Abduction/ Recovery Unit to ensure Braswell and her daughter were in court later that month.

Tom Johnson, a senior deputy district attorney who works in the unit, said Wednesday that he could not comment on the case, but an attorney involved in the case said the judge's request for the child abduction unit's involvement is rare.

Although she wasn't acting as his attorney at the time, Berry said Marmo told her that Braswell had been deployed overseas and had taken their daughter to live with her parents in Arizona. Berry said the outofstate move was without Marmo's consent, which is why he sought custody of his daughter.

Berry said Braswell orchestrated a 2004 arrest of Marmo on domestic violence charges in an attempt to discredit Marmo in court.

"We did our first mediation with him in custody, which greatly prejudiced his initial request to get joint custody of his daughter, and (Braswell) knew that," Berry said. "She was a cold, calculating woman."

She said Marmo, who worked at a heavy equipment rental company, "knew the tricks that she could play and addressed them as they came up. He never verbalized to me that he was scared of her, although he did tell me that she had been physically abusive to him in the past."

Both women are in custody at the Main Jail in Ventura in lieu of $1 million bail. Hardy also is being held in lieu of $510,000 bail.