Family, friends mourn Loomis murder victim

Family and friends of slain developer Lawrence J. "Cutter" Ficarra were trying to come to terms with his death Tuesday.The 52-year-old long-time property developer, known as "Cutter," from Aptos, a small town near Santa Cruz, was a divorced father of three girls. Jaime Ficarra, 24, said Tuesday she and her sisters, Alexandra, 15, and Giavanna, 14, of Aptos, are shocked by their father's murder."He was an incredible father," Jaime said. "All we have is our dad, and he's gone. It's devastating."Gary Bortis, 49, of Loomis, reportedly shot Ficarra at least five times Thursday night, over a property dispute. Bortis reportedly told a neighbor that Ficarra was choking Bortis' girlfriend prior to the killing.Born in San Jose and raised in Los Gatos, Ficarra started his own contracting and land development business nearly 30 years ago.Don Swift of Meadow Vista worked with Ficarra on the development project in Loomis."He was always a cheerful guy," Swift said. "He had talked about moving his daughters up here. He loved the area."Growing up near the ocean, Ficarra was an avid outdoorsman and enjoyed water skiing, Scuba diving and riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle."We were with him every weekend (and often) went to the lake to barefoot water ski," Jaime Ficarra said.Steve Vencill is a pastor at Coastland Church in Aptos where Ficarra enjoyed attending "God Rocks" services. "He was really multi-faceted and an extremely funny guy with a very quick whit," Vencill said. "Everybody would say the same thing - he put his children as No. 1."Ficarra was killed Thursday on Boone Lane in Loomis. Officials said Bortis phoned the Placer County Sheriff's Department to report the shooting. Ficarra was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds to the torso around 6:30 p.m. Lt. George Malim, spokesman for the Placer County Sheriff's Department, said the shots were fired from a 9 mm pistol. The dispute appears to be centered on Boone Lane being used as an access road to Ficarra's property.Ficarra owned approximately one acre and planned to subdivide the property into four parcels to build homes, Swift said. According to a 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 sheriff's 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."Bortis was arrested without incident shortly after the shooting and remains in Placer County Jail without bail. His girlfriend, Mary Anne Stein, was arrested on suspicion of being an accessory to murder, officials said. Henry was 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.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. Nearly 70 firearms were taken from Bortis' home and have been entered into evidence, Malim said."They were assault type weapons (and) we're checking to see if they are fully automatic or otherwise illegal," he said.Funeral services were set to take place today in Santa Cruz. Sarah Langford contributed to this story.Penne Usher can be reached at penneu@goldcountrymedia.com.