Man held on suspicion of stabbing girlfriend, a mother of three, in Van Nuys

The 14-year-old girl buried her face in her grandmother's shoulder as a police captain detailed the day the girl's mother died. Sabrina Alas occasionally peeked out into the crowd at Friday's news conference at the LAPD's Van Nuys station, but mostly she hid as Capt. Lillian Carranza laid out the story.

About 8 a.m. Tuesday, Osmar Gomez called 911 to report that he and his girlfriend, Klaudia Yemina Alas, 32, had been stabbed.

Officers found Gomez, 41, bleeding from his neck in an alley near the 6600 block of Kester Avenue in Van Nuys. Alas was lying motionless on the passenger side of Gomez's black Dodge truck. She was pronounced dead at the scene. 

“I could not believe something like this could happen to her,” Alas' father, Sergio Acajabon, said. “Nobody would ever have a reason to harm her.”

Gomez told police that three Latinos in a black truck had attacked the couple. Investigators got to work.

Police canvassed the neighborhood but found no evidence to corroborate Gomez's account. About 9 p.m., suspicion turned to Gomez, Carranza said. He was arrested on suspicion of murder and is being held in lieu of $1-million bail.

Carranza added that Gomez wasted the department's time, money and resources with a fake story. "Why he did this, you'll have to ask him yourself," she said.

Alas and Gomez had been in a relationship for eight months. Police said Gomez had a history of domestic abuse.

“I wanted to believe they had the wrong person,” said Rosaura Acajabon, Alas' mother. “It had to be a mistake.”

Alas is survived by her parents; two daughters, Sabrina and Emely, 12; and a son, Julio, 4. She loved to cook and salsa dance, her family said.

“My favorite dish that she made was lasagna,” Emely said. “She always put a lot of cheese.”

Sabrina wiped away tears to explain that her mother would go to great lengths to care for her children.

“I remember when I was little that she would carry me and push my sister in a stroller. She never made us walk far,” she said. “I think she just liked to hold us close.”

-- Jerome Campbell

Photo: (Top) From left, Sergio Acajabon holds Klaudia Alas' son, Julio; Sabrina Alas; a member of the mayor's crisis response team; and Emely Alas. Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times. (Bottom) Klaudia Yemina Alas in an undated family photo.