Jury deliberating in Texas shoe stabbing trial
HOUSTON (AP) — Jurors on Tuesday began deliberating the fate of a Houston woman accused of stabbing to death her boyfriend with the 5½-inch stiletto heel of her shoe.
Ana Trujillo is accused of striking 59-year-old Alf Stefan Andersson at least 25 times in the face with her shoe during an argument in June at his Houston condominium. Trujillo's attorneys have contended the 45-year-old woman was defending herself from an attack by Andersson, who was a University of Houston professor and researcher.
If convicted of murder, Trujillo faces up to life in prison.
The jury got the case following closing arguments earlier Tuesday, in which prosecutors called Trujillo's self-defense claims "offensive." Trujillo's attorneys told jurors the 45-year-old woman did the only thing she could do while being attacked: defend herself.
"This is not self-defense. This is a vicious murder," prosecutor John Jordan told jurors during closing arguments.
At the trial, now in its second week, prosecutors portrayed Trujillo, a native of Mexico, as a self-absorbed person who was angry and out of control on the night of the slaying. They alleged 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.
Jordan criticized defense attorney claims that Trujillo tried to save Andersson by performing CPR on him and that Andersson might have survived if medical help had arrived more quickly.
"In Ana's world, it has nothing to do with the fact you hit somebody 25 times in the face that caused the death," Jordan said.
But Trujillo's attorney, Jack Carroll, told jurors that Andersson became violent toward Trujillo, knocking her to the ground, grabbing her, and tearing at her limbs. Trujillo's attorneys said that on the night of the slaying, Andersson became enraged after thinking Trujillo was going to leave him.
"What would you do if there was the threat of serious bodily injury ... if the threat of death is there? You defend yourself," Carroll said.
Trujillo did not testify in her defense, but prosecutors played a video recording of her police interrogation in which she described how Andersson had allegedly attacked her.
Trujillo's attorneys portrayed Andersson as an alcoholic who was controlling and would get angry at Trujillo. Andersson's friends testified that he had a drinking problem but described him as mild-mannered and a gentleman.
Defense attorney Carroll told jurors not to focus on how many times Trujillo hit Andersson, a native of Sweden who became a U.S. citizen.
"It doesn't matter if she hit him once ... or 25 times, if that's what it took to get him loose," he said.
Carroll told jurors Trujillo stopped hitting Andersson and "tried to save him as soon as the danger was over."
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Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter at https://twitter.com/juanlozano70.
