Justin Stalberg
VENTURA COUNTY — It was on December 22nd when 74-year-old Igor Lirtsman, a New York resident visiting friends for the holidays, was sound asleep in the bedroom of a Thousand Oaks home. At approximately 2:00 a.m., he was suddenly killed by a Ford F-150 pickup truck that came crashing through the front wall of the house.
According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. B. Payton, the home Lirtsman was sleeping in stands at the end of a residential street cul de sac, making it truly the end of the road for the truck driven by 19-year-old Justin Stalberg, a resident of Camarillo who was ultimately found to be driving while intoxicated.
There were four other occupants of the home at that time who were not injured when Stalberg’s vehicle “crashed through a fence and down a steep embankment” before impacting the rear of the house.
Lirtsman’s injuries were of such a significant nature that he was pronounced dead at the scene by first responders, while Stalberg was not injured. Stalberg was, however, detained by deputies on the scene who took him into custody and transported him to Ventura County Jail for booking on charges of driving while intoxicated causing injury and gross vehicular manslaughter.
According to Payton, the Thousand Oaks Police Department’s Traffic Bureau seeks additional information from members of the public who may have witnessed the incident or any events leading up to it, asking them call (805) 494-8271.
Photo: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
