VENTURA, Calif. – Antoine Nehme, a 73-year-old man from Victorville, has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for orchestrating the 2004 murder of Dennis Wood, a Moorpark resident, over a financial dispute, according to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.
In March 2025, a Ventura County jury found Nehme guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit a crime, and solicitation of murder, further concluding that the act was financially motivated. Prosecutors say Nehme ordered the killing to avoid repaying a $28,700 debt tied to a failed prepaid phone card business.
On April 16, 2004, Ventura County Sheriff’s deputies discovered Wood’s body during a welfare check at his home. He had been shot twice in the head and once in the chest, and was found lying in a pool of blood inside his home—an act that deeply unsettled the tight-knit Moorpark community. The case went cold for years.
A breakthrough came in 2010, when a suspect in a separate Los Angeles homicide case informed detectives that his co-defendant, Alex Bracamonte, had admitted to murdering Wood at Nehme’s request. Bracamonte, once an employee at Nehme’s Ojai gas station, later confirmed the confession in a 2023 interview, revealing details known only to the killer.
Already serving a sentence for a 2006 Los Angeles murder, Bracamonte pleaded guilty in 2024 to Wood’s killing and received 15 years to life, to be served consecutively. He also testified against Nehme during trial.
During sentencing, Judge Paul Baelly emphasized the aggravating factors, including premeditation, brutality, and abuse of trust, citing the killing as “greatly violent and sophisticated.”
Senior Deputy District Attorney John Barrick, who prosecuted the case, praised the Ventura County Cold Case Unit:
“Dennis Wood was a good and honorable man who didn’t deserve to die the way he did. I’m grateful our team never gave up on this case.”
