Stiletto Shoe Murderer Ana Trujillo Sentenced to Life in Prison
She struck her boyfriend 25 times with the stiletto heel of her shoe
HOUSTON April 11, 2014— -- A Houston jury today gave Ana Trujillo, the woman who was convicted of murdering her boyfriend in the so-called "stiletto murder," the maximum sentence of serving life in prison.
The sentence carries a mandatory sentence of 30 years before she is eligible for parole. Trujillo, 45, will then be 75.
After the judge pronounced the sentence Trujillo sat down and cried. Her mother in the courtroom was sobbing.
Watch the ABC News exclusive interview with Ana Trujillo on “20/20” TONIGHT at 10 p.m. ET
Trujillo was found guilty Tuesday of murdering Dr. Stefan Andersson of Sweden. She was accused of bludgeoning the 59-year-old University of Houston medical researcher to death by hitting him 25 times in the face, head and arms with the heel of her shoe -- a blue suede closed-toe pump, size 9 with a 5.5 half inch heel.
While it only took the jury only about an hour to convict Trujillo, they deliberated for over five hours today to decide her sentencing.
Over the course of the two-day sentencing hearing, the prosecution painted Trujillo as violent woman. During her closing arguments today, prosecutor Sarah Mickelson told the court, "She's not just crazy, she is scary crazy.”
With his client convicted of murder, Trujillo’s attorney Jack Carroll told the jury today, "I thought I had convinced you all. I knew I failed in my duty, I missed something there. You took less than two hours. I missed something, what did I miss?”
On Thursday, Trujillo testified for six hours, saying that Andersson violently attacked her in a rage in 2012 after the two had been out drinking together at a bar. Fearing for her life, Trujillo told the jury she grabbed her shoe and repeated hit Andersson with it to fend him off. She even went as far as to re-enact her version of how she and Andersson struggled, using her attorney as a stand-in.
"He was suffocating me. I cannot breath," she said. "Desperately, I reached over and grabbed my left shoe."
Woman Convicted in ‘Stiletto Murder’ Re-Enacts How She Killed Boyfriend
Trujillo told the jury she initally had been attracted to Andersson because he was “charming and charismatic,” but then he became an “obsessive compulsive” man she feared. He had a drinking problem and would become “angry” and “frustrated,” she said, and that Andersson liked to see her wear high heels. Sometimes he would ask her to walk on him in her heels or she would dance for him while wearing them, Trujillo told the jury.
When asked by her attorney why she didn’t leave him, Trujillo said, "Because I loved him and wanted him to get better."
Thursday was the first time the jury heard from Trujillo in person. During her murder trial, her attorney and Trujillo chose to allow a three-hour police interrogation tape and her 911 call to be the only time the jury heard from her. The defense has always maintained that Trujillo acted in self-defense, but didn't prove to the jury's satisfaction that she was in imminent danger.
Members of Andersson’s family, who have been present since the start of Trujillo's murder trial, testified on Andersson’s behalf, telling the jury he was a gentle man with a sense of humor who enjoyed being outdoors and had many people who cared about him.
Prior to her conviction, Trujillo sat down for an exclusive interview with ABC News in January, in which she and Andersson had been dating for a couple of months and were in love, but when Andersson drank, he would become verbally and physically abusive.
"Sometimes he would drink so much that he would, like, pass out," Trujillo told ABC News. "All of a sudden, he would wake up, and he would be looking at me, and he would start yelling and screaming ... 'What are you doing? You don't belong here,' he would start yelling at me, things that didn't make any sense to me."
Despite being convicted as Andersson's murderer, Trujillo told ABC News she believes that he loved her.
"I think he wanted to feel like I belonged to him, that I was his," she said. "He loved me. He said he couldn't live without me. He was lost. He didn't want to live without me."
