BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 A woman was convicted on Wednesday on two counts of attempted murder and arson for setting fire to a two-story apartment complex in Taft, causing her ex-boyfriend and his uncle to jump from the building to escape, said the Kern County DA’s Office.<\/p>\n
Nohely Elizabeth Ruiz was found guilty on April 15, 2026, of two counts of attempted murder and one count of arson of a building.<\/p>\n
On Sept. 17, 2024, Kern County firefighters and KCSO deputies responded to the 300 block of Adams Street in Taft for a report of a two-story apartment complex on fire.<\/p>\n
At around 1:30 a.m., Ruiz’s ex-boyfriend and his uncle were sleeping in their shared apartment in the area. The uncle woke up after hearing someone kick and pound on the front door.<\/p>\n
He looked out the window and saw Ruiz walking in circles in the front yard area for about an hour. Then, over an hour later, the uncle woke up his nephew, Ruiz’s ex-boyfriend, because he heard Ruiz putting combustible items on the stairwell, the only exit from the second floor.<\/p>\n
Both men smelled smoke before they opened the front door and found the entire stairwell engulfed in flames. Subsequently, both men jumped from a second-floor window to escape. Both men assisted in evacuating the first-floor unit, where children and an adult were sleeping. The entire building was destroyed by the fire.<\/p>\n
Before the incident in Taft, on August 28, 2024, prosecutors said Ruiz and her ex-boyfriend were in an argument. She picked up a concrete brick and raised it towards her ex-boyfriend, telling him that he \u201cdid not deserve to live\u201d before throwing the brick at him.<\/p>\n
However, she missed the man and immediately began to punch him in the head and face, ripping his clothing during the incident. She was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon. She pleaded no contest in that case.<\/p>\n
Assistant District Attorney Joseph Kinzel stated, \u201cRuiz inflicted deliberate violence upon her former partner, placing not only him but anyone in the vicinity at significant risk. This behavior is unacceptable, extremely reckless, and a clear threat to public safety.”<\/p>\n
Ruiz is scheduled to be sentenced on May 12, 2026, and faces up to 13 years in prison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 A woman was convicted on Wednesday on two counts of attempted murder and arson for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-270555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}