Roundup: Motorcycle rider killed on Highway 118, more news

Here's a roundup of recent incidents and announcements from Ventura County agencies:

Fatal crash on Highway 118 involves motorcycle

A 54-year-old Camarillo man died when his motorcycle and a car collided Tuesday morning, the California Highway Patrol reported.

The crash took place around 6:50 a.m. on Highway 118 west of Walnut Avenue, CHP officials said in a release. The area is east of Mesa School Road amid agricultural fields north of Camarillo.

The rider, identified by the CHP Tuesday afternoon as David K. Kahlberg, had been riding a 2005 Yamaha FJR 1300 westbound on the 118 at the time.

A Fillmore man, 43, was driving westbound, ahead of the motorcycle, in a 2007 Toyota Camry sedan. As the sedan driver slowed down to make a left turn into a private driveway along the route, Kahlberg tried to pass the car using the eastbound lane, said CHP Officer Jorge Alfaro.

The motorcycle struck the left side of the car, officials said. Kahlberg was thrown from the bike and died at the scene.

The incident remains under investigation. Witnesses are asked to call the CHP's Ventura-area office at 805-662-2640.

Driver airlifted from Somis-area crash

A 36-year-old Tujunga man was flown from the scene of a single-vehicle crash in the Somis area Monday afternoon, California Highway Patrol officials reported.

The man had been driving a 2005 Toyota Scion southbound on Aggen Road, north of Highway 118, at around 1:15 p.m. when he lost control for unknown reasons, authorities said. The car spun onto the dirt shoulder, hitting a tree and shearing a water main, which flooded a nearby field. The Scion ended up facing the wrong way in the northbound lane, CHP officials said.

The driver, who was alone in the car, was flown by helicopter to Los Robles Regional Medical Center with major injuries he was expected to survive.

The crash closed Aggen Road for about two hours. The CHP’s initial investigation found neither drugs nor alcohol played a part.

Anyone who saw the crash is asked to call the CHP’s Ventura-area office at 805-662-2640.

Human remains found in Thousand Oaks

Authorities said human remains were discovered midday Tuesday on a hillside under an overgrown tree between the northbound lanes of the 101 Freeway and Highway 23 in Thousand Oaks.

The discovery was reported by Caltrans workers doing weed abatement shortly before 11:30 a.m., said California Highway Patrol Spokesman Ryan Ayers. He said the remains were not found during the cleanup of a former homeless encampment as first reported but were discovered several miles away north of Rancho Road.

Dr. Renee Higgins, chief operating officer for the Ventura County Medical Examiner's Office, said the remains were human and were presumed to be male.

"We're still trying to identify this person. He’s being examined today," she said Wednesday.

Man admits to death threats to Planned Parenthood, more

An Oxnard man pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Los Angeles for crimes related to death threats he made at multiple Planned Parenthoods and a Ventura nonprofit, authorities said.

Nishith Tharaka Vandebona, 34, entered his guilty pleas to one misdemeanor count under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and one felony count of transmitting threatening communications in interstate commerce, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice. He lived in Camarillo at the time of the offenses.

Prosecutors said Vandebona used an application to create dummy phone numbers and made threatening calls to Planned Parenthood offices in Santa Barbara and in Los Angeles in June 2022 and in February 2022 called in a bomb threat to Ventura nonprofit Californians for Population Stabilization, which calls for zero-population growth.

Vandebona made the threats to the clinics in the days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision and after the first decision was first leaked months earlier, according to the justice department.

In June 2022, he left a threatening voicemail to the Central Coast clinic and called the Los Angeles location where he spoke to an operator first and an hour later called back making additional death threats.

“I’m calling to let you know that I’m going to come in there and kill all of you, including your staff and your security. You got it? You’re overdue for an attack,” he told the call center specialist.

Later, Vandebona called back and threatened to “murder your staff.” He similarly phoned in a bomb threat to CAPS.

The threats were investigated by the FBI with assistance from the Santa Barbara and Santa Monica police departments and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.

Judge R. Gary Klausner remanded Vandebona to federal custody. He’s scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 2 and faces up to six years in federal prison.

Motorcyclist identified in PCH crash

Authorities on Tuesday identified the motorcycle rider killed in a crash near Mugu Rock over the weekend.

Hemet resident David Jose Valenzuela Fraire was 25, the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office said.

Fraire had been riding a 2021 Harley-Davidson northbound on Pacific Coast Highway around 4:30 p.m. Saturday when he reportedly lost control of the bike just north of the Point Mugu Naval Rifle Range, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The Harley crossed over southbound lanes and crashed into a fence off the south shoulder of the coastal route, CHP officials said. He died at the scene.

Lompoc man convicted of child molestation

A Ventura County jury convicted an 83-year-old Lompoc man Friday of five felony counts of lewd conduct with a child under the age of 14.

The jury later found true allegations that John Carillo Chavez had substantial sexual contact with the victim and aggravating circumstances that he took advantage of a position of trust and the victim was particularly vulnerable, according to a news release from the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.

Already a convicted child molester from 1995, Chavez sexually abused the victim at least five times at two sites in Ventura County between October 2001 and October 2002. The crimes were reported later when the victim was an adult but younger than 40, which the statute of limitations permitted.

“The prosecution team is grateful for the extended statute of limitations for child molestation that allowed this prosecution,” said Deputy DA Emily Reber, a member of the agency’s sexual assault unit, in a statement. “But for the tremendous bravery of the victim, justice could not have been done.”

Chavez is scheduled to be sentenced on July 12. He faces between three and 16 years in state prison, the DA’s office said.

Items may be updated.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Roundup: Motorcyclist killed in Highway 118 crash, more news