THOUSAND OAKS : Murder Trial Begins for Immigrant, 17

A 17-year-old Mexican immigrant who allegedly stabbed a Thousand Oaks nurseryman with a butcher knife last spring went on trial Monday on a murder charge in Ventura County Superior Court.

Jose Luis Navarro is being tried as an adult because a Juvenile Court judge ruled that he has been self-sufficient for more than a year.

Jose Narvaez, 49, died of deep stab wounds at the edge of a field in Thousand Oaks on the night of April 19.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard E. Holmes said in an opening statement that Narvaez and Navarro lived in the same apartment building in the 800 block of Warwick Avenue.

“Mr. Narvaez on previous dates had asked the defendant to have sex with him, and apparently there was an agreement to do so,” he said.

Holmes told the jury that autopsy evidence shows that Navarro sodomized Narvaez that night, but he added that a brawl began when Narvaez wanted to reciprocate. He said Navarro was struck several times, then stabbed Narvaez once in the stomach and three times in the back with a 9 1/2-inch butcher knife.

The knife, later found at the scene, was stained with blood matching Narvaez’s blood, Holmes said. And a woman who saw Navarro punch Narvaez and run from the scene described the suspect to the county sheriff’s deputies who later arrested him, he said.

However, Deputy Public Defender Steven P. Lipson argued in his opening statement that Navarro was trying to protect himself from Narvaez’s unwanted advances.

Testimony is expected to continue today.