Man who stabbed woman in the throat as they rode L.A. Metro is found guilty of murder

A forty five-year-old man who was banned from L.A. Metro trains for previous violent acts was convicted Monday within the 2024 stabbing loss of life of a lady on a B Line practice who was on her manner dwelling from an in a single day shift.

Elliot Tramel Nowden provided no response because the jury in downtown L.A. discovered him responsible of homicide and theft within the killing of Mirna Soza Arauz, 67, on the Common Metropolis station in April 2024. For the reason that jury discovered Nowden killed Soza Arauz whereas committing a felony, he’ll face life in state jail with out the opportunity of parole when he’s sentenced subsequent month.

Soza Arauz was working nights as she saved up cash to purchase a house in her native Nicaragua. She was on her manner dwelling from a shift as a safety guard at an Authentic Tommy’s hamburger restaurant in North Hills when Nowden approached her with two knives, stabbed her within the throat and stole her bag, authorities mentioned.

Video from the scene confirmed Nowden board the practice on the Common Metropolis cease and trip it to the following and final station, North Hollywood, the place Soza Arauz entered, in line with L.A. County Deputy Dist. Atty. Alexander Bott, who tried the case. Because the practice returned to the Common Metropolis cease, Nowden attacked with a pair of serrated kitchen knives, Bott mentioned.

“This complete case is de facto unhappy. It’s so mindless,” mentioned Bott, who mentioned Nowden lacked a “ethical compass.”

Bott mentioned Nowden stole a bag on the sufferer’s shoulder. Nowden’s legal professional declined to remark exterior the courtroom. A spokeswoman for the L.A. County alternate public defender’s workplace, which represented Nowden, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

In 2019, Nowden was arrested after stabbing a USC pupil within the chest on the Expo Line, in line with testimony given by the sufferer in that incident at trial. The sufferer mentioned Nowden approached him out of nowhere, cursed at him and referred to him by a racial slur earlier than plunging a blade into his chest. By some means, the sufferer was not severely injured, Bott mentioned.

Nowden was banned from L.A. Metro trains below the phrases of a plea deal for assault in that case. Just a few weeks later, Nowden was once more in courtroom on assault prices, taking a second plea deal that despatched him to state jail for 4 years, data present.

Nowden took the stand in his personal protection at trial final week, in line with Bott, who mentioned the defendant admitted he had been homeless for years and used methamphetamine on a close to day by day foundation.

Soza Arauz was possibly a 12 months or two away from leaving the U.S. and shifting again to Nicaragua, to the house that was midway constructed by the point she died.

“She was very alone in [the U.S.]. Fairly alone, by herself till my brother bought there,” her daughter, Mirna Roman Soza, beforehand instructed The Occasions. “What saved her going was her plans. Her goals.”