Porterville, CA: Man held in ex-wife's death

A 48-year-old Porterville man is in custody after he allegedly shot his ex-wife to death Tuesday afternoon in Porterville.

Tulare County Sheriff’s Department deputies said Emigdio Guzman Ojeda shot Flor Ojeda, 48, of Porterville, shortly after noon at her house on the corner of Mulberry Avenue and Woods Street.

Emigdio Ojeda then fled the scene and barricaded himself in his house on the corner of Henderson Avenue and Woods Street, about a third of a mile away from his ex-wife’s house.

The man, wearing a long-sleeve camouflage shirt and green shorts, was negotiated out of his house after a couple of hours and tackled by Dodge, a Porterville Police Department K9 dog.

PPD’s SWAT team, which was called to the scene at about 1:25 p.m., then moved in with guns drawn and handcuffed the man.

He was apprehended at about 2:20 p.m.

The victim may have suffered from more than one gunshot wound, TCSD reports.

Richard Weber, who lives next door to where the shooting took place, said he heard “two gunshots.” After he heard the shots, Weber said he came out of his garage and saw two men, one of whom had a gun, wrestling outside Flor Ojeda’s house.

Paramedics performed CPR on Flor Ojeda, who was lying in her front yard. She was transported by ambulance to Sierra View District Hospital, where she later died.

Joe Tamez, a close friend of the suspect, said Emigdio Ojeda had not handled his divorce well.

“He was going crazy. He wanted his wife back,” Tamez said. “He told me that they had gone to therapy, but nothing had changed.”

Tamez also said Emigdio Ojeda “was on a lot of medication.”

“I told him, ‘Don’t drink it any more, Emigdio. If you know it’s hurting you, don’t drink it,’” Tamez said. “He said, ‘Yeah, but I can’t handle this (expletive).’ He just kept saying that this medication was too hard for him.”

Emigdio Ojeda even asked Tamez to kill him about a week ago, Tamez said.

“I noticed he was getting worse and worse,” Tamez said. “He didn’t even go to work anymore.”

Tamez said Emigdio Ojeda owned a yard-maintenance business. Flor Ojeda worked at the unemployment office in town, he said.

“She was a really nice lady,” Tamez said.

Manuel Linares, who said he has known Emigdio Ojeda since he was 4 or 5 years old, said Emigdio Ojeda was “all around a really good guy.”

“I would see him driving in his truck with his friends, laughing,” said Linares, who lives a couple of blocks west of where the shooting took place. “It’s very surprising to me.”

Henderson Avenue, from Jaye Street to Villa Street, was closed for about an hour and a half while authorities negotiated with Emigdio Ojeda.

Emigdio Ojeda was apprehended by PPD officers and turned over to the custody of TCSD deputies for further investigation since the shooting occurred in a county area within the city.