NAVAJO COUNTY, Ariz. — An Arizona man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for three separate offenses that involved murdering a woman, kidnapping another, and brutally assaulting a third.
Elan D. Nash, 36, of Navajo County was sentenced last month after pleading guilty to multiple violent crimes committed against women in 2019, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office of Arizona.
The crimes involved Nash harming three victims -- one on the Navajo Nation and the other two on the Hopi Reservation.
Court records show one of the victims was found dead in a pool of blood in November 2019. The victim had hosted a cookout that was attended by Nash and it is believed the defendant fatally shot the woman after the other guests had left the gathering.
At around the same time that the deceased woman's body was found, Nash was allegedly involved in the kidnapping and robbery of another woman.
On the morning of Nov. 17, 2019, a police sergeant conducted a traffic stop on an SUV driven by the defendant. The car attempted to flee from the sergeant and ended up crashing into an embankment, court records show.
The sergeant reported hearing a woman screaming from inside the wrecked vehicle and ran over to help her out.
"I though I was going to die tonight," the woman told the sergeant.
The woman told investigators that Nash had forced her to get in his car, stole her money, and held her up at knife point.
While investigating the kidnapping and murder, law enforcement learned Nash was involved in the assault of a third woman in December 2019.
The victim had been in an on-and-off relationship with Nash and reported getting into a violent confrontation with him that ended in the woman getting kicked, punched and thrown to the ground. She sustained substantial injuries, prosecutors said.
The defendant ended up pleading guilty to second-degree murder, kidnapping, and assault resulting in substantial bodily injury of an intimate partner.
Federal prosecutors said Nash has a lengthy criminal history and described his conduct against the three women as being "abhorrent."
"The three present cases represent a crime spree committed by the defendant in a matter of weeks," prosecutors wrote in court filings. "His crimes were extremely serious."