Photo: Saul Nava
December 27, 2021 – Ventura County, Ca.
The traditional Christmas Eve trope of sitting around the fire in the arms of a loved one with a warm cup of hot cocoa in hand while awaiting the arrival of jolly old St. Nick was apparently far from the reality for the 24-year-old girlfriend of 21-year-old Thousand Oaks resident Saul Nava.
Instead of warm cuddles and kisses under the mistletoe, Nava was allegedly torturing his hapless live-in girlfriend precedent to beating her to death.
According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department Major Crimes Homicide Bureau spokesman Sgt. William Hutton, this nightmarish scene came to the attention of law enforcement pursuant to a 911 Emergency call for service an hour after midnight on December 24 th . Upon arrival at a McCloud Avenue residence in Thousand Oaks, deputies discovered “a woman who was unresponsive with serious injuries.”
The subsequent arrival of emergency medical personnel and their energetic lifesaving measures proved of no avail and “the woman was pronounced dead” at the scene. Investigators arriving at the scene quickly determined that “the victim had been tortured prior to her death.”
Nava was the only individual in the residence at the time, and he was promptly taken into custody. A search warrant for the entire premises was promptly issued, whereupon detectives “seized evidence related to the crime” and determined the death occurred as a result of “domestic violence” and posed no ongoing threat to others.
Nava was transported to Ventura County Jail, where he was booked on charges of murder, mayhem, and torture, with his bail set at $2,000,000.
Photo: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
