Erik Eduardo Navarro, who used a baseball bat to nearly beat a Crestline woman to death after she had had shown remarkable kindness to him this summer, has been taken into custody by San Bernardino County sheriff’s detectives.
Navarro, who originated in Orange County, was in the San Bernardino Mountains in August. 71-year-old Therese Garcia spotted him one day as he was walking down her street. She stopped to ask him if he needed help. He told her he had suffered a setback when someone stole all of his camping equipment and some of his other belongings while he was staying at a local campsite, but that he had to remain in the area to be able to attend for a job interview he had scheduled a few days later at the Lake Drive Hardware store. Garcia offered the 26-year-old Navarro a home-cooked meal on August 18 or August 19, and he remained at her house in the 23900 block of Straight Way there for several days thereafter, having offered to do some chores and repair work.
Garcia later told her family members that Navarro at some point became demanding and, in the words of one of those family members, “began… taking over her home.” Garcia informed Navarro that she wanted to leave. That night, while Garcia was asleep on her couch, Navarro kicked her and struck her with a baseball bat, knocking her out. Upon regaining consciousness, Navarro attacked her again, beating her into unconsciousness two or three times again when she came to. He beat her about the head, causing orbital injuries that were so pronounced that the swelling around her eye sockets made it impossible for her to see. Navarro may have believed she was dead after the last beating he administered. He then departed taking with him her cellphone, credit cards, keys and e-bike.
Garcia might have died, but neighbors called the sheriff’s department and requested a welfare check at her home. When deputies arrived on August 25, found her severely injured. She was transported to the Lake Arrowhead Hospital, where she was treated for skull fractures, traumatic brain injury, brain bleed, brain bruising, forehead lacerations, a deeply cut eyebrow, severe damage to her eye sockets, two broken bones in her arms, broken bones in her hands and critically swollen hands.
Navarro was identified as her attacker. An effort to locate him in his usual haunts in Orange County was unsuccessful. An all-point bulletin was put out.
Navarro left California and was at large for more than eight weeks, until he was arrested in New Mexico last week after being stopped for unidentified traffic violations. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department was contacted by the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Department and informed that he was in its custody. On October 27, two San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department detectives assigned to the sheriff’s office in Twin Peaks flew to New Mexico, where they participated in an expedited extradition process for Navarro, after which they took custody of him and arrested him at the Cleveland County Detention Center at 2550 West Franklin Road in Norman, Oklahoma and returned with him to San Bernardino County.
He was booked into the sheriff’s departments High Desert Detention Center in Adelanto for robbery, causing injury to an elder, assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery and destruction of a wireless communication device. His case has been forwarded to the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office for charges.