Top stories of 2013: Local woman murdered near church

Angel Campos Nava is escorted into the Franklin County Courthouse for a preliminary hearing in April. Nava, 33, was charged with capital murder in the death of 25-year-old Lesley Hope Plott.

The local community was shocked when news broke on Feb. 22 of a local woman who had been beaten and murdered early that morning outside the Good Shepherd Catholic Church on Jackson Avenue in Russellville.

The woman was identified as 25-year-old Lesley Hope Plott.

Officials arrested 33-year-old Angel Campos Nava on murder charges in connection with the crime, but officials upgraded the charge to capital murder several days after the initial arrest when new evidence in the form of a surveillance video suggested the violent argument started inside Plott’s vehicle, making it eligible to be a capital offense under Alabama statute.

Officials said the murder was the result of an apparent domestic dispute since Nava and Plott had been involved in a relationship that had recently ended.

Hargett said Plott and Nava had left Plott’s mother’s residence sometime around 1 a.m. on Feb. 22 and the dispute occurred during the drive.

Plott was allegedly taking Nava back to his residence to get his vehicle so he could go to work when an argument apparently escalated into a physical confrontation.

Hargett said Nava is accused of beating Plott before attacking her with a knife. The official cause of death was listed as deep lacerations to the neck.

The case was bound over to the grand jury in April and Nava was officially indicted for capital murder by the September grand jury.

Nava’s case is currently awaiting trail in Franklin County circuit court.