The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department on Monday released details surrounding the Sunday night arrest of Joshua Graham Packer, 20, of Ventura, charged in the stabbing deaths last May of Santa Barbara business owners Brock and Davina Husted, both 42. Davina Husted was six months pregnant.
The arrest concluded an 11-month investigation, but authorities have been tight-lipped about many of the case’s details. They said, however, that Packer’s DNA — collected by law enforcement when he was charged with robbing a Santa Barbara gas station in September 2009 — had matched DNA evidence collected at the scene of the murder.
The Husteds were stabbed in their Faria Beach home when an unidentified man wearing a black motorcycle helmet entered the house through an unlocked door. Their 9-year-old son witnessed the intruder’s attack on his mother and awakened his 11-year-old sister. The children fled to a neighbor’s house and called 9-1-1.
The children are currently living with relatives.
In January, Packer was released from the Santa Barbara County Jail on $115,000 bail after his arrest for the holdup of a gas station on the 4000 block of State Street, but is now in custody at the Ventura County Jail. Authorities indicated that he isn’t likely to make the current $2.2 million bail, and that most likely he’ll be represented by a public defender.
Packer, who also was charged on separate occasions late last year with battery and hit-and-run, was scheduled for a preliminary hearing — now postponed — in Santa Barbara County Superior Court for the gas station robbery. Officials said he is also a suspect in three Ventura robbery cases but has not been charged in any of them.
In the Husted case, Packer faces three murder charges — one each for the Husteds and one for their unborn child — and two counts of robbery.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department said items were stolen from the Husted residence, but officials would not say what they were.
Brock Husted owned a custom wrought-iron business in Santa Barbara. His wife was active in the Ventura chapter of the National Charity League, a mother-and-daughter philanthropic organization.
— Noozhawk staff writer Ben Preston can be reached at bpreston@noozhawk.com.