Ronald Baranauskas, 61, was beaten to death in San Bernardino on Jan. 3. (Special to the Press-Enterprise)
The stabbing death of a transient this week got Louisa Ortiz thinking of her friend and former tenant, Ronald Baranauskas.
Like Roy Sciortino, who was killed under a freeway overpass just west of downtown, Baranauskas struggled with homelessness for years. After moving from Rochester, N.Y. earlier this decade, the 61-year-old Baranauskas developed poor health, Ortiz said.
He never got on his feet. Three days after the New Year, he was beaten to death during an apparent street robbery on West 14th Street. It was the city's first homicide of 2008.
Police have made no arrests.
"I've been depressed over this for the past month," the 79-year-old Ortiz told me Thursday from her Westside home, which still receives medical bills addressed to Baranauskas.
Ortiz met Baranauskas several years ago at a bar near the Rialto city line, and decided to let him rent a room.
"A very gentle man," she said. "He was very polite to me, never cussed or anything."
Baranauskas drifted in and out of her home, living on the streets for stretches in between, Ortiz said. He had no family on the West Coast, and was unable to work because of his frail health. He collected a monthly Social Security check, and got around town by bus or on foot.
After back surgery late last year, Baranauskas was taking several prescription drugs and wouldn't have been fit enough to fight off an attack, Ortiz said. He also had little of value -- so it's been tough for her to reconcile what happened.
"I don't even want whoever did this to him to be punished," Ortiz said, standing over her kitchen table, which held the sole picture she has of 'Ronnie.' "I just want to ask, 'Why do you do this? Why do you kill someone you don't even know?'
"And for what?" she asked, exasperated. "He had no money, no jewelry."
Anyone with information about the Jan. 3 killing of Baranauskas is asked to call Detective Timothy Crocker at 909-384-5656.
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