Lake Sherwood kidnapper found guilty

A Ventura County jury found Dennis Elliot Shellhouse, 46, guilty of kidnap for ransom, criminal threats and residential burglary, all with the special allegation that he used a fireman and resisted arrest with a firearm.

Authorities said the crimes occurred on June 7, 2005, after Shellhouse traveled from Phenix City, Ala. to Los Angeles to carry out a kidnap-for-ransom plan on the Burtzloff family, residents of Lake Sherwood in Thousand Oaks.

Shellhouse posed as a courier delivering legal documents to gain entry to the gated community and the Burtzloff resi

dence. He threatened resident Jamie Burtzloff, 35, with a gun, entered her home and threatened her housekeeper as he ordered the victim to pack a bag of clothing and get in his van.

When Shellhouse tried to force Burtzloff into his van, a neighbor drove by, saw her in distress and notified the police after the victim told the neighbor, "Call 911."

Shellhouse fled in his van without Burtzloff and led police on a two-hour chase through several Los Angeles counties. The pursuit ended in a four-hour standoff with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department SWAT team on the 10 Freeway in Alhambra. "Following the defendant's ar

rest, the Ventura County Sheriff 's Department conducted an extensive investigation that included traveling to Alabama to seize computer information from the defendant's home and workplace that revealed the defendant's research and planning of the kidnapping for at least six months," said Ventura County District Attorney Gregory Totten in a statement.

Shellhouse will be sentenced in courtroom 27 at 8:30 a.m. Thurs., Aug. 24. He faces life in prison on the charge of kidnap-for-ransom, with additional time added to his sentence for the remaining charges.