Youth Facility Ordered for Woman in Mother’s Death

An 18-year-old La Habra woman convicted of murdering her mother so she and her boyfriend could collect $26,500 in life insurance benefits was ordered committed Wednesday to the California Youth Authority.

Dominique Navarro, who was 16 on April 24, 1983, when her mother, Jovita Villagomez Navarro, was found beaten and strangled in her bedroom, can remain in CYA custody no later than her 25th birthday, according to the terms of her sentence, handed down by Superior Court Judge James F. Judge.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard King had recommended that Navarro be sentenced to state prison for 25 years to life because of the severity of the crime and because Navarro “still denies to this day any part of the crime.”

“I can just say I was disappointed, but I respect the judge’s decision,” King said.

King argued at Navarro’s jury trial last November that she and her boyfriend, William Noguera, now 21, conspired to murder Mrs. Navarro, an employee of the county Social Services Agency, for the purpose of collecting the insurance money.

Noguera is scheduled to stand trial for murder next month, King said. Noguera faces the death penalty because of the allegation that the crime was committed for financial gain, a special circumstance, King added.