Thousand Oaks Resident Is Held in Cashier’s Stabbing

A 28-year-old Thousand Oaks man was being held in lieu of $1-million bail Wednesday after his arrest in connection with the stabbing and attempted robbery of a female cashier at a local gas station, authorities said.

Raymond Allen Nichols, whom officers identified from video cameras inside the gas station, was arrested Tuesday morning at his girlfriend’s house in Camarillo, authorities said.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Pat MacAuley said the assault was captured on four of the station’s six surveillance cameras. “It was horrific,� MacAuley said. “Just brutal.�

The attack occurred about 10:40 p.m. Monday at a Mobil gas station in the 2300 block of Borchard Road in Newbury Park. The identity of the victim, who was listed in good condition at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, has not been released.

MacAuley said the video showed a man walking past the gas station as the cashier, an 18-year-old woman, stood near the entrance. There was nobody else at the gas station, he said.

The man was seen returning to the entrance, where he confronted the cashier.

“He approached with a knife and made a demand for money,� then immediately stabbed the cashier in the upper chest, MacAuley said. “He didn’t give her time to reply or comply.�

The video captured the woman struggling to get away, and the man stabbing her a second time in the lower chest, MacAuley said. He missed on a third attempt to stab the woman, MacAuley said.

“She fell to the ground and he pulled her by the hair behind the counter,� MacAuley said.

MacAuley said the man never made an attempt to steal money from the register. The assailant dragged the woman by her hair outside and around to the back of the gas station. He then fled on foot.

The cashier was treated at the gas station by a passing nurse, and was later admitted into the intensive care unit at Los Robles, MacAuley said.

The woman was able to provide details of the crime to authorities, MacAuley said.

The suspect was “known to us,� MacAuley said. “A patrolman [had] stopped him [Sunday] and recognized him off the video.�

“We put a rather large team out and hit a lot of different locations,� MacAuley said. “We got lucky and picked him up at his girlfriend’s house.�

Nichols was taken into custody without incident about 11 a.m. Tuesday. He has prior offenses that include narcotic sales, public drunkenness and domestic disturbance, MacAuley said.