Jose Antonio Jimenez is charged with murder in the 2014 stabbing death of Labh Nigah near Sierra Linda Elementary School.

VENTURA, Calif. — Prosecutors charged an Oxnard man with murder after investigators said new DNA work tied him to the 2014 stabbing death of a father killed near his son’s elementary school moments after morning drop-off.

Jose Antonio Jimenez, 32, was arrested April 2 and charged in the death of Labh Nigah, a 55-year-old husband and father of three. The case had remained open for more than 11 years after Nigah was attacked on a walking path in Sierra Linda Park, next to Sierra Linda Elementary School. Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said the filing marks an important step in a case that left a family waiting for answers and a neighborhood shaken by a killing that police described as random.

Police said the attack happened Nov. 13, 2014, after Nigah walked his son to school and then went to Sierra Linda Park, where he often walked laps in the morning. Officers were sent at about 8:43 a.m. to a report of a battery victim near Indigo Place. They found Nigah suffering from multiple stab wounds along a park path. Emergency workers tried to save him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. Oxnard Police Chief Jason Benites said the killing took place in a public park, in daylight, while school was in session. “This was a truly heinous crime,” Benites said.

The location gave the case an added weight from the beginning. The park sits beside the elementary school, and officials said the attack was seen by people in the park, teachers, school staff and students in the schoolyard. Investigators said Nigah was not targeted for any known reason. Nasarenko said there is no evidence Nigah and Jimenez knew each other. He described them as strangers and called the killing random, unprovoked and brutal. Police said Nigah was walking through a familiar place in his own neighborhood when he was ambushed.

Detectives built the original case with witness interviews, public appeals, composite sketches and forensic testing. Evidence collected in 2014 included DNA, which was entered into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System. The system did not return a match at the time. Officials said that meant the case moved forward slowly, even though investigators had evidence and multiple witnesses. The killing remained one of the most disturbing unsolved cases for Oxnard detectives, Benites said, because it took place in front of children and in a setting normally tied to routine school mornings.

In recent years, Oxnard police, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit, the Ventura County Crime Lab, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation and the FBI returned to the evidence. Officials said advances in DNA technology helped develop new leads. Prosecutors said genetic genealogy work led investigators to a relative in Houston and later to a sibling in Ventura County. From there, investigators identified Jimenez, who authorities said lived blocks from the crime scene when Nigah was killed. Detectives served an arrest warrant at an Oxnard residence on April 2 and took Jimenez into custody without incident.

Jimenez is charged with one count of murder. Prosecutors also filed special allegations accusing him of personally using a knife, committing a killing that involved great violence and harming a particularly vulnerable victim. Jimenez made an initial court appearance April 6, and his arraignment was continued to April 28. Senior Deputy District Attorney Amber Lee is prosecuting the case. Prosecutors sought a higher bail amount after the filing, and the court raised Jimenez’s bail to $1 million. He remained in custody after the hearing.

For Nigah’s family, the arrest reopened a wound that had been part of daily life for more than a decade. Family members described him as an immigrant from India who worked as a clerk at a local convenience store and put his children’s education first. His daughters, Harleen Kaur and Arshneel Kaur, were teenagers when their father was killed. Harleen Kaur said not having a name for the person responsible had become its own kind of closure. Learning a suspect had been identified was both shocking and meaningful, she said.

Arshneel Kaur said she still thinks about what her father would have seen in the years he missed. She said the call about the arrest caught her off guard, even after years of hoping the case would move forward. Harleen Kaur said her father taught his children to be modest, humble and hardworking. The sisters said the loss did not become easier with time. It changed shape as they grew older, built lives and carried their father’s memory into adulthood. Their comments put a face on a case that prosecutors described in charges and timelines.

The original investigation began as a report of a battery, but it quickly became a homicide case. An autopsy confirmed Nigah’s death was caused by violence. Police said he had a lengthy blood trail behind him when officers arrived. Early reports from 2014 said investigators were trying to determine whether one or more attackers had approached him. The newly filed case names Jimenez as the defendant, but officials have not announced a motive. Authorities said the evidence points to a random attack and have not said that Nigah did anything to provoke the violence.

Nasarenko called the killing an ambush against a completely unsuspecting victim. He said nothing can undo the harm to Nigah’s family, but the arrest and filing are a step toward accountability. Benites credited advances in science, cooperation among agencies and the decision to preserve evidence from 2014. He said the case showed why cold-case work can matter years after leads appear to stop. Investigators also credited the continued work of detectives who returned to old evidence as technology changed.

Jose Jimenez’s next scheduled court date is April 28 at 1:30 p.m. in courtroom 13 of Ventura County Superior Court. The charges remain allegations, and the case is now moving through the court system after more than 11 years without an arrest.

Author note: Last updated 2026-04-28.