Left: Eleni Tavau (Facebook). Right: Rodrigo Bravo (Monterey County Jail).
A California man with a history of domestic violence will be sentenced to serve 16 years to life in prison after admitting to stabbing his girlfriend in front of their two toddlers while the killer had an active restraining order against him, authorities said.
Rodrigo Bravo, 31, pleaded no contest to the second-degree murder of his girlfriend and the mother of his children, Eleni Tavua, 30, Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni announced in a Friday press release. Bravo also admitted that he personally used a knife in the killing.
The bloodshed happened on June 23, 2023, prosecutors said. Tavua and her two children, ages 1 and 2, were at their apartment on Natividad Road in Salinas, more than 100 miles southeast of San Francisco. Bravo was there as well, despite a domestic violence restraining order prohibiting him from contacting Tavua.
While there, Bravo and Tavua got into an argument. During their argument, Bravo pulled out a knife and stabbed Tavua at least five times, puncturing her aorta.
He immediately fled the residence, leaving their two children with Tavua as she bled to death, prosecutors said.
Hours after the stabbing, Bravo surrendered to police, the Salinas Police Department said in a June 27, 2023, Facebook post.
“He basically did it in front of them or in the area of the kids,” Brian Johnson, a spokesman for the Salinas Police Department, told local NBC and ABC affiliate KSBW.
Law&Crime reported that Tavau had an active restraining order against Bravo, the father of her young children, San Francisco-based MyNetworkTV affiliate KRON reported. The active restraining order was issued in November 2021.
The defendant was previously convicted of injuring Tavau and violating a court order, local CBS and Fox affiliate KION reported, citing court documents.
“It was a domestic violence restraining order so that when that occurs, they’ve been convicted of a domestic violence crime, and that’s the only way to get a domestic violence restraining order,” Johnson told KION.
Tavua’s brother, Alex Carr, told the outlet he had just spoken with his sister before she was killed, and she told him she was being abused and wanted to move out of Salinas.
“We were talking on the phone, and she was telling me that she wanted to move out here to Reno, Nevada, to come be with me and bring the kids over here and just so that we can be closer together,” said Carr. “She started telling me how he started getting abusive, verbally, mentally and then physical, and she made it seem like just didn’t want anything to do with him.”
Her uncle, Tavau Junior Misikau, told the Samoa Observer she was loved.
“She is my older brother’s daughter, but I raised her since she was a child,” he said. “A dark cloud has covered our family, and our hearts are shattered. We called her Emi, and she was loved by a lot of people. I used to carry her on my back to school and would wait for her to finish school.”
“She did not deserve to go the way she did; no one deserves that, and it’s really hard for us to accept what happened because it’s just unbelievable,” he added. “She loved her kids with all her heart. I’m sure she fought to stay alive for them but could not hold on. It’s like we’ve been stabbed right in the heart. It really hurts.”
Bravo is set to be sentenced on March 5.
Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report.
