Plumber poisoned elderly customer with fentanyl, paid himself with victim’s accounts, D.A. says

Authorities have released shocking new information about a case involving a Camarillo man who is currently behind bars for one murder and was recently linked with another.

Rotherie Durell Foster, 38, was arrested last year in connection with the murder of 35-year-old José Antonio Velásquez, who was reported missing in July 2022 and whose body was found months later off Mulholland Drive in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Foster and Velásquez knew each other and were both plumbers, officials from the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office and Sheriff’s Office said. It’s alleged Foster used a gun to “violently and forcibly” obtain the other man’s banking and financial information and personal checks, which he then used to acquire cash and pay for things like gas, clothing and food.

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Foster was eventually arrested and charged with the murder of Velásquez, but as prosecutors and investigators began to build the case against him, they discovered abnormalities that they said showed it wasn’t the first time he’d committed an act of murder and paid himself after their deaths.

Investigators subpoenaed Foster’s bank account information and discovered multiple payments made to him by 72-year-old Bill Dean Levy, a Los Angeles man who was found dead inside his Granada Hills home on Jan. 10, 2022.

“Mr. Levy was a quiet but nice man who lived a regimented lifestyle and kept a rigid schedule about his daily routines,” said Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff, adding that neighbors grew concerned when he suddenly disappeared from view.

Fryhoff said there was no reason to believe there was any foul play associated with his death, which was originally ruled to have been the result of natural causes.

But as investigators looked deeper into Foster’s financials, they were shocked to discover that the payments Levy appeared to have made happened on Jan. 11, 2022 — the day after he was found dead.

Investigators determined that Foster had done plumbing work at Levy’s house on several occasions and during a press conference Wednesday, officials said there appeared to be a “troubling and similar pattern” that showed the “potential for murder for financial gain.”

Levy’s body was later exhumed and a full autopsy was performed at which point the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office determined his death was the result of exposure to fentanyl, a highly potent narcotic. His cause of death was then changed to homicide.

Fryhoff said additional evidence tied Foster to Levy’s killing, which led to the new murder charges being filed earlier this week.

But the sheriff says Foster’s crimes aren’t just limited to those two individuals. Other suspicious transactions appear to connect him to a Los Angeles man who’d also hired him for plumbing services.

Additionally, authorities believe Foster committed an armed robbery in July 2022 at a convenience store in which he tied up the employees and stole an undisclosed amount of cash. Cell phone data and license plate photos show that Foster was involved in that robbery, Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said.

Foster has since been charged in connection with the convenience store robbery.

In total, he faces 33 felony charges and over 100 special allegations, including murder in the first degree, murder in the commission of a burglary, forgery, identity theft and intentional and deliberate administration of a poison.

Foster previously was sentenced as a juvenile to 21 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon. He was paroled in 2018, and Nasarenko said he wasn’t sure how much of that sentence he ultimately served.

At the conclusion of the press conference, Nasarenko provided additional information about Bill Levy, who he said grew up in Westchester and was one of ten siblings. He lived alone and previously worked as a bookkeeper and an employee of the United States Postal Service.

“Mr. Levy donated his entire estate to the City of Hope, The American Heart Association, Children’s Hospital and Delta Animal Rescue,” Nasarenko said.

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