Dancer Gets Life Sentence for Murder

An exotic dancer convicted of murder for her role in the slaying of a San Clemente client was given the mandatory sentence Friday of life in prison without parole.

Graciela Cortes, who also uses the name Elizabeth Nava and called herself “Gypsy” when she was a dancer, sat expressionless during the brief sentencing hearing in a Santa Ana courtroom, during which her lawyer asked the judge to consider modifying the jury’s Dec. 8 verdict to allow sentencing leeway.

“Based on my client’s conduct, she doesn’t deserve that punishment,” Deputy Alternate Defender George Douveas said. “She was invited into his house to perform a show. She didn’t lay a finger” on the victim.

Cortes and her boss, Daniel Louis Parra, 37, were convicted Dec. 8 of killing 54-year-old engineer Charles Ray George, who was bludgeoned in his apartment Jan. 29, 2001. The defendants claimed that Parra was protecting Nava from George, who they said tried to rape her when she denied him sex.

Although evidence indicated that Cortes, now 30, had fled the apartment before Parra began beating George with a metal flashlight, she could still be convicted of murder because the slaying occurred in the course of a robbery.

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

Murray protested Douveas’ claim that the verdict was unfounded.

“I think the jury used its common sense to arrive at these findings,” he told Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel.

The judge denied Douveas’ motion for a new trial, but Cortes’ lawyer said he planned to appeal.

Parra faces the same ruling and is set to be sentenced Jan. 28.