Gwinnett father sentenced to life without parole for choking ex-girlfriend, burning her body

The Brief

  • Jahir Sagahon, 32, has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2023 murder of his ex-girlfriend.
  • Prosecutors revealed Sagahon searched online for how to strangle someone and took his 3-year-old son to buy gasoline used to burn the victim’s body.
  • Facing a mountain of evidence, Sagahon entered a non-negotiated guilty plea to malice murder in Gwinnett County.

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. A Lawrenceville man will spend the rest of his life behind bars after pleading guilty to the brutal 2023 strangling of his ex-girlfriend and the subsequent burning of her body in a vehicle. Jahir Sagahon, 32, was sentenced to life without parole for the murder of 28-year-old Rubi Maldonado-Nava, the mother of his young son.

What we know:

Jahir Sagahon entered a non-negotiated plea of guilty to malice murder following the March 2023 death of Rubi Maldonado-Nava. Investigators say Sagahon strangled the victim during an argument, placed her body in the trunk of a car, and drove to Oglethorpe County. Once there, he used a gasoline-soaked rag to ignite the vehicle’s gas tank. When police eventually located Sagahon, he was found with severe burns on his face and hands.

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