Escort, Boss Found Guilty of Murder

An exotic dancer and her boss were convicted Wednesday of murdering a San Clemente engineer and face mandatory sentences of life in prison.

Charles Ray George, 54, was bludgeoned to death in his apartment on Jan. 29, 2001, after paying $150 to a performer from Lakewood-based Ambrosia Escorts in the hope of having sex with her. After she refused and he complained, Elizabeth Nava, now 30, of Irvine called Daniel Louis Parra, 37, of Cerritos who then beat him with a metal flashlight, prosecutors say.

Nava and Parra, who were arrested in Northern California about two weeks after the slaying, were also found guilty Wednesday of robbing and beating another client, Bert Madison, 46, in a San Clemente motel room in 2000. Madison, of Northern California, testified at the monthlong trial.

“They were out to hurt people who didn’t like being robbed,” Madison said in a phone interview Wednesday. “There was no reason for him to beat me like he did.”

Madison said that after Nava text-messaged him, Parra “came in swinging” a flashlight. The first blow fractured his skull, giving him a wound that required 12 staples. After beating him, Madison said, Parra chased him into the bathroom and squirted pepper spray in his eyes as Madison knelt on the floor.

“I’m not surprised that someone ended up being killed because of that same behavior,” Madison said. “It wasn’t about protecting anybody. It was about beating and robbing.”

Outside Judge Frank F. Fasel’s Santa Ana courtroom, jurors declined to talk about the verdict they reached after deliberating 1 1/2 days.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Murray said that in picking jurors for the trial he sought people who understood that the law protects everybody -- even those trying to engage in criminal conduct such as hiring a prostitute.

“Once you start picking and choosing who can be a victim, what’s next?” Murray said after the verdicts were read. “If you prepare jurors for that concept in advance, they’ll be offended if the defense tries to argue that someone engaged in misdemeanor or felony conduct doesn’t deserve protection.”

During the trial, Murray said Parra and Nava had been luring clients with promises of sex, then taking their money, knowing that few would call police.

Lawyers for Parra and Nava tried to show during the trial that some men who hired exotic dancers became volatile after they were told that sex wasn’t included in the deal. George and Madison, they claimed, had tried to rape Nava, and Parra had stepped in to protect her.

As the court clerk read aloud the verdicts related to Parra first, his head sank lower in his hands each time the word “guilty” was read. Nava appeared torn between tears and anger when her verdicts were read, staring at Parra with narrowed eyes before looking blankly down at the defense table.

Nava’s lawyer, Deputy Alternate Public Defender George Douveas, said Nava planned to file an appeal immediately after her Jan. 7 sentencing. Nava was convicted of murder during a burglary despite being outside the apartment when Parra was beating George.

“She’s a 30-year-old woman who will spend the rest of her life in prison when she didn’t touch or hurt George,” Douveas said. “It’s very frustrating that the justice in this case meted out for Parra and Nava will be the same. It doesn’t seem right based on her conduct.”

Parra is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 28.