Plumber Poisoned Client With Fentanyl And Stole From Him: DA

LOS ANGELES, CA — A plumber arrested for the murder of his coworker in Agoura Hills is now suspected of poisoning a client months earlier in Granada Hills and making it look like he died of natural causes, the Ventura County District Attorney's Office announced this week.

It was the shooting death of Jose Velasquez in July of 2022 that led police to re-examine the death of 72-year-old Bill Dean Levy. Levy died in his Granada Hills home earlier that year in what was believed to be natural causes, but investigators recently exhumed his body and medical examiners determined he died of fentanyl poisoning, according to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department.

Now, Rotherie Durell Foster, 38, is suspected of killing both men, and the motive was money, according to investigators. Foster is facing 33 felony charges including murder in the first degree, murder in the commission of a burglary, forgery, identity theft and intentional and deliberate administration of a poison with more than 100 special allegations, according to Ventura County District Attorney District Attorney Erik Nasarenko.

Foster has served time in prison in the past for involuntary manslaughter.

But he was out of prison and working as a plumber when his coworker Velasquez disappeared in July of 2022. On Oct. 3, 2022. Velasquez's body was found in the 2600 block of April Road in the Santa Monica Mountains in Agoura Hills, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner. Authorities in late October determined his death was a homicide and that he had been shot multiple times.

“Jose was an incredibly hard worker who was starting his own plumbing business when his life was viciously and cruelly cut short,” said Nasarenko.

Velasquez graduated from Mountain View High School in Virginia and was saving up money to help his parents buy a home in Virginia, Nasarenko said.

"This was an individual with a promising and bright future, who was embarking on a career in general contracting. According to his mom, he was to specialize in remodeling, painting, electrical and plumbing work," Nasarenko added.

It was when detectives were pouring over Foster 's financial records that they "saw a number of suspicious, troubling, and alarming transactions," said Nasarenko. Namely, payment from Levy coinciding with his death, according to investigators.

"They learned that Bill Levy had passed away on Jan. 10 of 2022 of natural causes," said Nasarenko"This was alarming and disturbing because the suspected fraudulent transactions that they saw were initiated the day after."

Foster had done plumbing for Levy several times, according to investigators.

"Foster worked as a plumber for several companies prior to his arrest for the death of Mr. Velasquez," Nasarenko's office said in a written statement. "Investigators believe he used his plumbing trade to identify potential targets for his crimes."