A 46-year-old man accused of fatally stabbing a woman on a Metro train in the Studio City area pleaded not guilty Thursday to murder and robbery charges.
Elliott Tramel Nowden is scheduled to return to court in downtown Los Angeles on Jan. 24, when a date will be set for a hearing to determine if there is sufficient evidence for him to stand trial on the charges of murder and first-degree robbery. The murder charge includes a special circumstance allegation of murder during a robbery.
Nowden could face a potential life prison sentence without the possibility of parole if he is convicted as charged, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
He is charged in connection with the attack that occurred around 5 a.m. April 22 on the train between North Hollywood and Universal City.
Mirna Soza Arauz, 66, seen in a photo on the GoFundMe website, was heading home after boarding Metro B (Red) Line in North Hollywood early Monday, April 22, 2024, and was stabbed to death. A suspect identified as Elliott Tramel Nowden, 45, was arrested. LA Metro’s board voted on Thursday, May 23, 2024 to beef up patrols and other security measures on its system. (Photo via GoFundMe)
Police said the victim — 66-year-old Mirna Soza Arauz — had boarded a downtown-bound Metro B (Red) Line train at the nearby North Hollywood station and was stabbed in an apparently unprovoked attack. She managed to exit the train when it arrived at the Universal City Station in the 3900 block of Lankershim Boulevard in Studio City, where she was found mortally wounded on the platform.
She was taken to a hospital, where she later died.
According to a GoFundMe page created by her nephew, Arauz was a mother of three and grandmother of four. Family members said she worked as a night security guard at a Tommy’s hamburger restaurant in North Hills, and she was returning home after her shift when she was attacked.
Nowden was arrested about 30 minutes after the stabbing near Ventura Boulevard and Vineland Avenue, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
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He remains jailed without bail.
Criminal proceedings in his case were temporarily halted in July when the defense questioned his mental competency. In September, however, a judge ruled that Nowden is mentally competent to stand trial.
According to Los Angeles Superior Court records, Nowden pleaded no contest in June 2019 to battering a passenger on a Metro train. He was ordered to spend five days in jail and three years on probation — during which he was barred from boarding or riding any Metro trains.
In November 2019, he pleaded no contest to an assault with a deadly weapon charge and was sentenced to four years in prison, court records show.
Nowden also has a previous petty theft conviction from 2003 that landed him on two years probation.