Vicente Perez has been formally convicted with homicide for the killing of Cynthia Nava in 2019, according to a release from the Lovington Police Department. The charge came after a two-hour deliberation by a Lovington District Court jury on March 25th.
According to the court record, Perez, who is now 37, fired at and killed Cynthia Nava with a .22 caliber rifle while the two were engaged in a verbal argument in their small travel trailer. Nava, who was 36, died a short while later from the gunshot wound. Three of the couple’s four children were present in the trailer at the time and witnessed the homicide.
Perez was located in an adjacent trailer shortly after the incident and was immediately identified as a person of interest in the case. He has been in custody since the homicide took place. Perez was charged with Murder in the Second Degree as well as Tampering with Evidence and is eligible to serve up to 21 years in prison. He will be tried separately for another charge, Felon in Possession of a Firearm.
Nava was born in Hobbs and graduated from Lovington High School; she was a Lovington resident all of her life. Her obituary shares that she was always the life of the party during the many get-togethers she would attend and liked to make people laugh. Along with being with her children, whom she loved very much, she enjoyed decorating and dancing.
Nava is survived by five children and her father, Benjamin Nava, Jr.
