Jose Jimenez, 32, has been charged with murder in the 2014 stabbing death of Labh Nigah, 55, a father who was killed in broad daylight outside an elementary school in Oxnard, California. The case went unsolved for more than 11 years before advances in forensic evidence led to Jimenez’s arrest and arraignment on April 2, 2026.
How the killing happened
- On the morning of March 31, 2014, Nigah walked his son to Sierra Linda Elementary School in Oxnard, then went across the street to Sierra Linda Park, where he routinely walked laps on a path every weekday.
- Around 8:40 a.m., Jimenez allegedly attacked Nigah with a knife, stabbing him multiple times as students, teachers, and staff in the nearby schoolyard watched in horror.
- Authorities say the attack was random and unprovoked: there is no evidence that Nigah knew Jimenez or that Jimenez had any prior connection to the victim. The DA and police have described the killing as an ambush and a “heinous, brutal” act in a public park next to an active school.
The long delay to justice
- For over a decade, the case remained unsolved; Nigah’s family lived without a name for the person who killed him, which his daughter Harleen Kaur described as an uneasy, incomplete form of closure.
- The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office and Oxnard Police said advancing forensic technology and renewed investigative work ultimately led to identifying and charging Jimenez.
Charges and current status
- Jimenez faces one count of murder and three special allegations in Ventura County Superior Court:
- Personally using a knife in the offense
- Committing the killing with great violence
- Targeting a victim who was particularly vulnerable
- Prosecutors successfully argued for a $1 million bail, and Jimenez remains in custody awaiting his next court date on April 28, 2026.
Officials emphasized that while the arrest cannot undo the trauma for Nigah’s family and the students who witnessed the attack, it marks a significant step toward accountability for a crime that shocked a community nearly 12 years earlier.
