Inset: Saul C. Nava (Ventura County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The apartment complex where Nava tortured and killed his girlfriend in December 2021 (Onscene.tv).
A 24-year-old man in California will likely spend the remainder of his days behind bars for torturing his girlfriend over the course of several days, ultimately killing her on Christmas Eve.
A jury in Ventura County on Tuesday found Saul C. Nava guilty of nine felony counts in the 2021 slaying of 24-year-old Alisen Takacs-Escobar, authorities announced. Jurors took only one day of deliberation before convicting Nava on counts of first-degree murder, torture, kidnapping, aggravated mayhem, assault with a deadly weapon, possession of child pornography, and inflicting corporal injury to a current or former cohabitant.
“Although this result cannot erase the immeasurable pain the defendant inflicted on the victims and their families, we hope that this brings some measure of closure to see him held accountable for his horrific crimes,” Senior Deputy District Attorney David Russell, who prosecuted the case, said in a statement following the proceedings.
According to a news release from the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office, Deputies with the sheriff’s office on Dec. 24, 2021, responded to a 911 call from Nava, who was seeking medical assistance for Takacs-Escobar, after ” days of beating and torturing” the victim inside of their studio apartment in Thousand Oaks, California.
Upon arriving at the scene, first responders said they made a harrowing discovery, finding Takacs-Escobar dead with injuries “all over her body.”
“She suffered from extensive bruising, the top of her head had a large laceration, and degrading words were newly tattooed on the center of her chest. Nava was arrested at the scene,” prosecutors wrote in the release. “In the apartment, deputies located tattoo equipment, baseball bats, a hammer, and a screwdriver which were used on Ms. Takacs-Escobar. Nava’s cell phone was also located in the apartment. Videos on the phone, taken hours before Ms. Takacs-Escobar’s death, show Nava taunting her and displaying no concern for her worsening condition.”
Nava took the stand in his own defense and admitted to harming Takacs-Escobar, but claimed he did not intend to kill her, the Thousand Oaks Acorn reported. Nava reportedly told jurors that he believed the victim was cheating on him, saying he “wanted her to feel the pain I felt.”
“The more you hurt, the less likely you are to repeat the action,” Nava reportedly said.
During the course of the investigation into Nava, one of his ex-girlfriends came forward and told detectives she had also been the victim of extreme abuse. Prosecutors said Nava and that victim met when they were both teenagers and their relationship “escalated quickly.”
“Nava brought her into his home, confined her to a closet, and beat her,” prosecutors said. “At one point, she tried to run away but Nava found her and threatened her with a knife until she got into his vehicle. The victim got pregnant when she was 17. Nava punched her in the stomach and convinced her to get an abortion. She was punched in the face, choked, and secretly filmed having sex with Nava.”
Authorities said that victim was only able to escape the abuse after Nava began dating Takacs-Escobar in mid-2021. Jurors also convicted Nava on charges that he kidnapped and tortured that earlier victim.
During a Wednesday hearing, jurors found that a special circumstance allegation that Nava committed intentional murder involving torture was not true, Ventura news radio station KTVA reported. Had the special circumstance been found true, Nava would have been handed a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
A judge set Nava’s sentencing hearing for Dec. 4, 2024.
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