The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department announced the capture and extradition of a Southern California man Wednesday, more than two months after he was accused of beating an elderly woman with a bat and fleeing the state.
Erik Navarro, 26, was taken into custody in Oklahoma on unrelated traffic charges. Detectives from the department’s Twin Peaks office flew to Oklahoma on Monday to bring Navarro back to Southern California, where he was booked on suspicion of robbery, causing injury to an elder, assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery and destruction of a wireless communication device.
He is being held in the county’s West Valley jail in Rancho Cucamonga while bail has been set at $250,000. His case has been forwarded to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s office for charges.
Local detectives caught a break after Navarro was arrested on traffic charges in Cleveland County, Okla. The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office coordinated his extradition with the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Department.
Navarro had been on the run since around Aug. 25, when San Bernardino County deputies responded to a distress call at around 6 a.m. to the Crestline residence of 71-year-old Therese Garcia.
Garcia suffered multiple injuries, according to deputies, including a cut to her forehead and eyebrow, swollen hands and an injury around her orbital area that made it hard for her to see. Investigators contend that Navarro assaulted Garcia with a baseball bat.
Erik Eduardo Navarro.
(San Bernardino County Sheriff)
Garcia’s family posted an online campaign that had raised nearly $47,000 as of Thursday morning to help defray the cost of medical bills. In the post, family members say Navarro arrived at Garcia’s home six days before the attack. He allegedly told Garcia his possessions had been stolen while he was camping nearby. He ended up staying with her for days before he “began making demands and taking over her home,” family members wrote.
Navarro attacked Garcia after she asked him to leave, family members wrote. TThey said he stole her “phone, credit cards, keys, e-bike, and other belongings and fled.”
Garcia suffered a traumatic brain injury and a brain bleed, multiple deep lacerations requiring extensive stitches, broken bones throughout her face, arm and hands and severe eye injuries, the post said. Garcia’s family believes the only reason she’s alive and recuperating is because neighbors called authorities.
The family said it’s raising money because Garcia has no health insurance and is on the hook for thousands of dollars in hospital bills.
