Crime & Safety

Kumra Murder: Who Is Katrina Fritz?

Pittsburg woman has been charged with murder in the commission of a robbery and home invasion robbery with gang enhancements.

Pittsburg resident Katrina Marie Fritz, 32, aided and abetted brother Deangelo Austin in the Nov. 30, 2012 home invasion robbery that led to the suffocation death of Monte Sereno businessman Raveesh "Ravi" Kumra, according to police.

Austin's DNA was found on a piece of packaging tape recovered near Kumra's body found inside his 7,000-square-foot Withey Road mansion in Monte Sereno, police said.

Fritz is the fifth suspect in the murder case of the former Saratoga Mountain Winery owner. She will most likely join the other four defendants in the case: Austin and Javier Garcia, both 21; Lukis Anderson, 26; and Raven Chanel Dixon, 22, in future court appearances.

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On Feb. 22, she was charged with murder in the commission of a robbery and home invasion robbery with gang enhancements. She's being held at the Santa Clara County Jail without bail, just like the men in the case. Dixon's bail has been set at $1 million.

Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Kevin Smith said the suspects caused the 66-year-old high-tech investor to asphyxiate after putting tape around his mouth and blindfolding him during the crime. His wife, Harinder Kumra, was also beaten and needed medical attention.

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The men are each facing six felony counts of murder, assault, criminal threats, false imprisonment, robbery and residential burglary. Two gang enhancement charges have been added to Garcia and Austin.

Dixon has been charged

Aiding and Abetting Austin

Police say that efforts were made to take Austin into custody after the crime and that they discovered he was a parolee at large and that Fritz was listed as his guardian in juvenile custody documents. Austin was seen at her address before and after the homicide by Pittsburg police officers.

Austin was seen driving Fritz' 2000 blue X5 BMW immediately after the homicide and also received a moving citation in Pittsburg on Oct. 5, 2012. He was also photographerd for a red light violation in the BMW registered to Fritz on Aug. 27, 2012, according to police.

Investigators observed the citation and photo when collecting it as evidence when Fritz' home was searched, police said. 

Fritz also had an account with Hertz Rental Car Company and would often rent cars at a Hertz rental location in Oakland. While attempting to locate Austin, he was seen on several occasions while under police surveillance driving a silver Chevy rental car that was rented by Fritz on Dec. 8, 2012, police stated.

Fritz returned that rental car on Dec. 28, 2012 and rented another car. She then drove the newly rented Chevy Malibu directly to a nearby area where Austin was located. Austin was then seen by investigators in the area driving the newly rented Chevy Malibu, police added.

Austin was taken into custody on Dec. 29, 2012 while driving the Chevy Malibu that had been rented by Fritz, police said.

Fritz Linked to Kumra

Fritz' personal contact information was discovered through computer forensics analysis of Kumra's computers. He had backed up his iPhone to his personal computer in May of 2011 and November of 2012. His iPhone had her contact information and had a possible bank account number, three email addresses and a phone number, according to police.

On Kumra's computer was a letter, that was to be notarized, where Kumra stated he was paying Fritz $3,000 a month up to $30,000 to help her with a down payment to buy a home, police records said.

Investigators had also identified Fritz early in the investigation through Google Voice correspondence that she had with Kumra, the records added.

There was a Google Voice message to one of the victim's girlfriends in Las Vegas asking them to contact Fritz and help her with purchasing property in Las Vegas, the records indicate.

Fritz was identified by a friend of Kumra's and by other prostitutes who frequented Kumra's company as being a prostitute that had been meeting and partying with Kumra ongoing for several years, both at his residence and at a nearby hotel. One of the prostitutes referred to Fritz as one of Kumra's "main girls," according to police.

One of Kumra's prostitutes that had been with him for several years was interviewed. She identified Fritz by her California driver's license photo as "Trina." She stated that Fritz had been one of Kumra's main girls, police said.

She told police the older "main girls" would have run of the house, able to go anywhere including Harinder Kumra's room when she was not there. The older main girls would stay at the house for weekends when Harinder was out of town, police indicated.

They would usually sleep in the spare room next to Kumra's room. She stated that two or three years ago, Fritz had become pregnant, but had not kept the baby, possibly getting an abortion, police said.

She had heard from Kumra that Fritz was mad because Kumra had given her a sexually transmitted disease and also because Kumra had told her he was running out of money and would not be able to pay for any child they might have together, according to police.

The prostitute said she had been to Kumra's house during the summer of 2012 with her children to visit Kumra. She said she had located a pair of girls' tights on the couch one day. Kumra told her that Fritz had just left. Fritz had stayed the weekend with her kids at the Monte Sereno home, police said.

Kumra told her that Fritz had been to the house another time or so during he summer of 2012 as well. She stated that she thought Fritz and Dixon knew each other and that Fritz was the person who introduced Dixon to Kumra, police noted.

My Redbook Prostitution Website

A computer check of My Redbook, an online prostitution website, showed that Fritz had posted advertisements for her services there, police said.

One of the phone numbers Fritz used on the prostitution website was the same as one of the phone numbers police located in Kumra's iPhone in November of 2012, police added.

During a review of text messages between a woman police interviewed about the case and Austin, police located a Dec. 1, 2012 text that said, "She better had put u on cuz yo house hitting days is over, all you could do is Rob her tricks bitch, ima have sumbody sit a datee with that bitch."

Police say the texts don't say specifically that "she" is Fritz, but they show that Austin was involved in the illegal activity.

Familiarity With Monte Sereno Mansion

Given the amount of time that Fritz had spent with Kumra and having frequented his residence, she would have been familiar with the layout of Kumra's property, which door would be unlocked and normally used for entry, directions to his property and details regarding the design of the house, including hidden closets and entrance points to the property, police believe.

Through interviews of other girls who visited the victim's home and friends of the victim, it was determined that most of the time anyone came to the house, they would use a side door between the house and garage doors, police said.

Usually guests would come in through the sliding glass door into the family room next to the kitchen which entered into the bedroom that Kumra used. This was where police believe entry was made into the house by the suspects based upon evidence at the scene, police said.

Phone Calls The Night of the Crime

On the night that the homicide occurred, call records show that Austin called or was called from Fritz' phone four times between 10:02 p.m. on Nov. 29, 2012 and 12:02 a.m. Nov. 30, 2012, according to police records.

The call durations ranged from 1:17 seconds to 1:34 seconds. Most of these were during the commission of the home invasion and homicide, police say.

Cell tower and phone records showed that Austin's phone was in the area of the victim's home during the time of the homicide and during the phone calls made to Fritz, police stated.

A review of records showed Austin's phone making and answering numerous calls between Austin and Fritz and Austin and Garcia on Nov. 29, 2012, the day of the homicide, police added.

Membership in Criminal Street Gangs

During the course of the investigation, police say a records search on Austin and Garcia showed the latter was part of a criminal street gang in Oakland called "Ghost Town" and Austin as part of the "Money Team."

A search warrant was executed at Fritz' residence and numerous shirts memorializing deceased members of "Money Team" were on display in her bedroom, police said. 

The shirts showed the "Money Team" members making gang signs, holding large amounts of money and references to "ENT," an abbreviation for "Money Team," according to police.

A reivew of Statigram also revealed Fritz "liking," or commenting on known "Ghost Town" member postings, including a comment mentioning "RIP" for a deceased member and then asking the owner of the site to contact her, police said.

It's been determined that the two street gangs commit crimes together, are concerned with making money, and invade homes targeting Asian and East Indian families, police said.

They enter into the homes, tie the victims up and ransack the dwellings. The crimes are committed with at least four people, three go inside the house and one remains as the lookout and getaway driver, according to police.

On Jan. 8, a search warrant was served at Fritz' residence in Pittsburg. Several cell phones and two laptops were located with the RIP T-shirts with faces/names of gang members killed by police on them, as well as anti-police statements like "f--- OPD," police said.

After attempting to contact Fritz for several weeks, police say she avoided them until the week after her arrest warrant was served.

When she contacted police it was to say didn't want to speak with detectives before seeking advice. She also didn't return any follow-up calls, according to police.

Antioch police arrested Fritz Feb. 19.

—For comprehensive coverage of the Raveesh 'Ravi' Kumra murder case, please see our topic page by clicking here.


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