A Santa Ana man was convicted Wednesday, Aug. 10, of killing an escort in a Newport Beach office building in late 2015.
Nain Isaac Nieto Hernandez, 36, was convicted of second-degree murder in the Dec. 18, 2015, killing of 23-year-old Sarai Alcaraz of Long Beach at 5030 Campus Drive. He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 7.
Jurors deliberated for two days.
Police were called just after midnight to an architectural firm’s offices when an escort service reported one of its employees missing, according to a trial brief filed by Deputy District Attorney Robert Goodkin.
When officers arrived they encountered a driver for Cyren Entertainment. He said he drove Alcaraz to the office at 10 p.m. and walked her to the door but ducked around the corner because the client asked her to arrive without a chaperone, Goodkin said.
Once Alcaraz was in the office she texted him at 10:29 p.m. saying she got the money and was coming out, Goodkin said.
While waiting for her to emerge, Beltran said, he saw a man leave the business, so he approached him, but he appeared nervous and returned into the office building and locked the door, Goodkin said.
The man, Hernandez, exited again and locked the door behind him, and when the driver confronted him about Alcaraz’s whereabouts, Hernandez said she robbed him and he didn’t know where she was, Goodkin said.
When the driver pressed him on where she was Hernandez got “very nervous” and left in a white minivan and drove away, Goodkin said. When the driver could not contact Alcaraz on the phone he called the escort service, which called the police.
Police found the victim stuffed in a trash can in a supply closet. Hernandez worked there as a janitor, Goodkin said.
The victim sustained “severe head and facial trauma” and “blood was running from both ears, and her nose,” Goodkin said. Police found the defendant’s driver’s license at the scene, and they also recovered a Smith & Wesson semiautomatic pistol, Goodkin said.
Hernandez, who was a mixed martial arts fighter, testified that he acted in self-defense when she attempted to rob him and that he just shoved her but did not punch her.
“She comes in and he’s ready to have sex with her right away,” Goodkin said. “The problem here started when she wasn’t ready to have sex with him.”
Defense attorney Cameron Talley argued his client was the victim.
“This case is not about prostitution — there is no prostitution going on. None, zero, zip,” Talley said. “This is a criminal enterprise.”
Talley said the plan was to “have muscle come and get the money.”
Source: Orange County Register
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