After a jury deliberation that spanned several days, Antoine Nehme has been convicted for orchestrating the 2004 murder of Dennis Wood, a Moorpark resident. The Ventura County District Attorney's Office announced the verdict, which includes a finding of the special allegation that Nehme ordered the killing for financial gain. According to the press release, Judge Paul Baelly also affirmed the existence of several aggravating factors in the crime, such as the degree of violence and the presence of planning and professionalism.
On April 16, 2004, deputies from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office discovered Wood's corpse in his Moorpark home during a welfare check. Having been shot twice in the head and once in the chest, Wood's business relationship with Nehme surfaced as a key motive for the murder. Nehme, having previously bought prepaid phone cards from Wood, was indebted a substantial sum of $28,700, money he had no intention of repaying. Found in the doorway, investigators at first grappled with a mystery that went cold, until a suspect in a separate case pointed them in Nehme's direction years later.
A suspect in an unrelated Los Angeles murder case, in February of 2010, provided the initial break in the investigation by implicating his co-defendant, Alex Bracamonte, in the murder of Wood under Nehme's direction. Bracamonte, an employee at Nehme's gas station, confessed to the killing in an interview last August, his knowledge of crime details cementing his guilt. In May of 2024, Bracamonte pled guilty, later testifying against Nehme in the trial.
Senior Deputy District Attorney John Barrick from the Major Crimes Homicides Unit led the prosecution. "I am deeply grateful to the jury for convicting the defendant and to the Ventura County Sheriff’s detectives who never gave up on this case," Barrick told the District Attorney's Office. "Thanks to their tireless efforts—especially lead detectives Gerardo Cruz and Erik Hernandez—we secured the evidence needed to prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt. After two decades, they made justice possible for Dennis Wood’s family."
The court has scheduled Nehme's sentencing for May 20, 2025, where he faces life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, while Bracamonte is due for sentencing for Wood's murder on April 30, 2025. Held in custody without bail, Nehme has been found guilty of murder, conspiracy to commit a crime, and solicitation of murder.
