Family members of a Camarillo woman murdered during a 1997 workplace shooting in Thousand Oaks shared their grief with a judge at her killer’s sentencing hearing on June 16.
Monica Leech was shot during a bank robbery at Western Financial Bank on Thousand Oaks Boulevard after two masked gunmen dressed as construction workers ordered employees into a vault and handcuffed them before murdering Leech, a beloved mother of four. The bandits made off with a little over $11,000 cash after shooting the 39-year-old bank teller once in the back of her head.
The case remained cold for more than two decades until new forensic evidence and investigative leads identified Kevin Ray James, 57, of San Bernardino, as one of the suspects. On March 13, 2023, James was charged with the murder of Leech and he pleaded guilty to murder and gun allegations on May 16…