Former gas station owner sentenced for plotting man's death to wipe out debt

VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. (TCN) -- A 73-year-old man will spend the rest of his life in prison for plotting the 2004 death of a man so he could erase his debt.

Per a May 20 release from the Ventura County District Attorney's Office, Antoine Nehme received a life sentence without the possibility parole. A jury previously convicted Nehme in March of murder, conspiracy to commit a crime, and solicitation of murder.

Multiple special allegations were found to be true, including murder for financial gain, the crime involved great violence, the victim was vulnerable, and the defendant induced another to participate.

According to the district attorney's office, on April 16, 2004, the Ventura County Sheriff's Office performed a welfare check at the home of Dennis Wood and found his body in the doorway with a large pool of blood near his head. An autopsy later revealed he had sustained two gunshot wounds to his head and one to the chest. Despite investigators' efforts, the case went cold.

Authorities later "uncovered a financial motive." Prosecutors said Wood owned a prepaid phone card company and gave Nehme over $28,000 for a business venture. Nehme owned an Ojai gas station at the time and had bought phone cards from the victim. Prosecutors said that instead of paying back the debt, the defendant plotted to have Wood killed.

In February 2010, a suspect in an unrelated homicide case out of Los Angeles reportedly told investigators that his co-defendant, Alex Bracamonte, had killed Wood under Nehme's instruction. The district attorney's office said Bracamonte worked for Nehme at the gas station in Ojai, and he later confessed to fatally shooting Wood in an interview in August 2023.

Bracamonte was already behind bars for a 2006 murder, but he was charged in Wood's death and pleaded guilty in May 2024. During the trial, Bracamonte testified against Nehme, and he was sentenced to 15 years to life for the murder of Wood.

In a statement, Senior Deputy District Attorney John Barrick said, "Dennis Wood was a good and honorable man who didn’t deserve to die the way he did. I am glad Dennis’ family was able to see his murderers finally brought to justice after 21 long years."

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