Man, 21, Stabbed to Death in Front Yard : Oxnard: Police say victim was slain by his mother’s ex-boyfriend during fight early Christmas morning.

A 21-year-old Oxnard man was fatally stabbed early Christmas morning in the front yard of his home.

Isaias Guerrero Morales died early Saturday while being taken to the hospital after his mother’s ex-boyfriend allegedly stabbed him during a fight. Police arrested Jose Socorro Jimenez, 32, of Oxnard on suspicion of murder. He was being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Morales and his family had spent Christmas Eve preparing traditional Christmas tamales and listening to music, said Mercy Morales, the victim’s 19-year-old widow.

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About 3 a.m., his widow said, Jimenez smashed his hand against the living-room window of the Oxnard house. Mercy Morales said Jimenez was yelling that Isaias’ mother, 36-year-old Graciela Guerrero, was “going to pay” for breaking off their three-year relationship a few months before.

Isaias Morales was roused from his sleep by a cousin and asked to reason with Jimenez. The pair had worked for several years together in a landscaping business, Morales’ wife said.

As Morales escorted Jimenez away from the house, fighting erupted and Jimenez allegedly stabbed Morales in the chest with a knife, officials said.

Morales and his wife had been living for three months in his mother’s cramped garage while trying to save money for a place of their own. A graduate of Oxnard High School, he had recently started working nights at an Oxnard restaurant to supplement the family’s income. His wife said he was well-liked and had a lot of friends.

“He was always so happy and sometimes that bugged people; they couldn’t understand how someone could be smiling all the time,” Mercy Morales said.

A steady stream of friends arrived at the house Christmas morning to pay their condolences. The family sat in stunned silence amid unopened presents next to the family’s Christmas tree.

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Morales’ mother sat silently in a corner of the living room hugging her arms to her chest. Cousins and friends sat nearby consoling her.

Mercy Morales searched for pictures of her dead husband, unable to remember the last thing he said to her before he went to confront Jimenez.

“He was already laying there unconscious when I got to him,” she said. “I didn’t get to say anything to him.”