A woman was convicted of murder on Tuesday for fatally stabbing her Swedish-born boyfriend with her stiletto heel, hitting him at least 25 times in the face.
Prosecutors said Ana Trujillo used her 14cm high-heeled shoe to kill 59-year-old Alf Stefan Andersson during an argument at his Houston condominium in June last year.
Trujillo’s attorney, Jack Carroll, had argued that the 45-year-old woman was defending herself as she was attacked by Andersson, a University of Houston professor and researcher.
Trujillo, who faces up to life in prison, showed little emotion when the jury’s verdict was read. She had been out of jail on bond, but was taken into custody after the guilty ruling.
The jury was to begin hearing evidence in the trial’s punishment phase yesterday.
Before she was taken into custody, Trujillo was overhead speaking in Spanish with some friends, telling them: “I loved him and he was crazy.”
Carroll said he was disappointed with the verdict and that his client was “taking it a little hard, but she’s pretty tough.”
“I’m hoping that they will be merciful in the punishment,” he said, adding that he will be asking for a prison sentence of two years.
During the trial, prosecutors portrayed Mexico-born Trujillo as out of control on the night of the slaying.
They told jurors that after a night of drinking, the couple began arguing and during the confrontation, Andersson was injured and fell on his back. Trujillo sat on Andersson, preventing him from getting up and repeatedly struck him in the face and head with her shoe, they said.
“This is not self-defense. This is a vicious murder,” prosecutor John Jordan told jurors during closing arguments on Tuesday.
Jordan told jurors that Trujillo had a history of violence, reminding them of testimony by two witnesses who said she had attacked them two weeks before Andersson’s death.
James Wells, who used to be romantically involved with Trujillo, testified that in an unprovoked attack, she bit him on the head, pulled skin from his skull and told him: “You’re a dead man.”
Chanda Ellison, who was romantically involved with Wells, testified that she had to use a stick to fend off an attack from Trujillo in her home.
During witness testimony, prosecutors highlighted that Trujillo did not have any injuries from her confrontation with Andersson, while the researcher had defensive wounds on his hands and wrists. Trujillo’s attorneys argued that she did have injuries.
Prosecution witnesses portrayed Andersson, a native of Sweden who became a US citizen, as mild-mannered and quiet.
Trujillo told detectives she hit Andersson with her shoe “a couple of times” and did not realize she had hurt him until she saw blood on the floor, and that she tried performing CPR on him.
In video and photos taken by police at the crime scene, the heel can be seen lying on the carpeted floor of Andersson’s condominium, above his head.
A large pool of blood was also near his head, which was bloodied, purple and had several visible wounds.
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