Development dispute turns deadly

A 52-year-old Aptos man was shot to death on Boone Lane in Loomis Thursday night in an apparent property dispute.The victim has been identified as Lawrence Joseph Ficcara. Deputies from Placer County arrested Loomis resident Gary Allan Bortis, 49, at the scene on suspicion of murder. Bortis is being held without bail at the Placer County Jail. The first shot was fired at 6:24 p.m., according to sheriff's Sgt. Brian Whigam. Ficarra received multiple gunshots to the torso and died at the scene. "It appears there was a controversy over property easements," Whigam said. "The dispute escalated and shots were fired at the victim." At 9 a.m. Friday, Bortis' girlfriend, Mary Anne Stein, 44, was arrested on suspicion of being an accessory to murder. She was allegedly involved in an altercation with Ficarra prior to the shooting. Stein is being held at the Placer County Jail on $50,000 bail.The dispute appears to be centered on Boone Lane as an access road to Ficarra's property.According to Town Manager Perry Beck, the victim, who also went by "Cutter," approached the town in early spring requesting a permit to subdivide his property on Boone Lane. Ficarra, who did not live locally and whose last known address was Aptos, Calif., owned approximately one acre and planned to subdivide the property into four parcels to build homes.However, Beck said the town could not move forward in the permitting process until proper access roads for a subdivided lot were established. While Ficarra claimed he had dual access rights off Saunders Avenue and Boone Lane, Beck said, no evidence had been submitted to that end."Neither access point was sufficient to do what he wanted to do," Beck said Monday. "We couldn't allow the subdivision until he could prove adequate access. As far as we can tell there is no record of an easement on Boone Lane."According to Saunders Avenue resident Keith Henry, whose property backs up to Ficarra's, Thursday's incident was the result of months of building antagonism between the victim and the suspect. "The sheriffs have been here 17 times before," Henry said. "The fire department was here nine months ago when the dispute started. This has been going on since January."Another resident, Tracy Baker, was driving down Boone Lane toward her house after work Thursday shortly before the shooting occurred. She said she saw Ficarra and Bortis arguing in front of Bortis' house, but kept driving to avoid becoming involved in the discussion.When she got to her house, she got out of the car and saw that Cutter had gotten into his vehicle and was headed away from Saunders Avenue, toward her house, presumably to speak with her. "I saw Mary Anne step in front of his car to prevent him from driving on Boone Lane," Baker said. "She was waving her hands and pointing to a sign they had put up recently saying theirs was private property."In the split second Baker ducked back into her car retrieve her purse, she heard a string of gunshots ring out."I heard easy six shots," she said. "I thought they were warning shots. But then I didn't see Cutter come out of the vehicle. So I called to Gary and he called back to me, 'Call 9-1-1.'"Baker said when she ran over to Bortis, he was pacing back and forth, "in panic and shock," and had thrown the gun to the side. Henry was also home at the time of the shooting and said he spoke with Bortis shortly after the incident."When I got to him he looked at me with that wild-eyed 'what did I do' look," Henry said. "Then he said, 'He was choking Mary Anne, so I had no choice.'"Henry added that he saw "red marks" on Stein's neck prior to the shooting. Henry had also been in an ongoing dispute with Ficarra over the width of an easement access on his own property for several months.Besides sheriff's deputies, fire protection districts from Loomis and Penryn responded to the scene Thursday, providing emergency medical response. Boone Lane was blocked off at Saunders Avenue for approximately one hour as rescue workers attempted to resuscitate the victim.Thursday's incident is the first recorded homicide in Loomis in almost 20 years. According to the Dec. 11, 1986 edition of the Loomis News, Loomis residents Robert Riley and Claudia Plemmons were found dead in their Brooks Lane home on Dec. 4 of that year in what later proved to be a murder-robbery.Multiple arrests and convictions were made in the case, said sherrif's Lt. George Malim, and some of the perpatrators may still be serving time behind bars. "As far as any of us can remember, that was the last one," Malim said Monday. "(Thursday's incident) is pretty unusual for Loomis, definitely." Sarah Langford can be reached at sarahl@theloomisnews.net.