Woman Convicted in ‘Stiletto Murder’ Re-Enacts How She Killed Boyfriend
For the first time, Ana Trujillo speaks to the jury in her own words.
April 10, 2014 -- A Houston jury heard from Ana Trujillo, the woman convicted in the "stiletto murder," for the first time today as she re-enacted how she killed her boyfriend with her shoe.
Trujillo, 45, was found guilty Tuesday of murdering Dr. Stefan Andersson of Sweden. She was accused of bludgeoning the 59-year-old University of Texas 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 five-and-a-half inch heel.
She faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
During her sentencing hearing today, Trujillo testified that Andersson violently attacked her in a rage after the two had been out drinking together at a bar in 2012. She even went as far as to re-enact her version of how she and Andersson struggled, using her attorney Jack Carroll as a stand-in, showing the jury how she said he slammed her into walls and held her face-down on the floor of his apartment. Fearing for her life, Trujillo told the jury she grabbed her shoe and repeatedly hit Andersson with it to fend him off.
"He was suffocating me. I cannot breath," she said. "Desperately, I reached over and grabbed my left shoe."
Trujillo told the jury she 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."
This was the first time the jury heard from Trujillo in person. During her murder trial, Trujillo and her attorney chose to allow a three-hour police interrogation tape and her 911 call to be the only time the jury heard from her.
The jury convicted Trujillo after the state successfully portrayed her as self-serving violent woman who lives in her own world. While the defense, which has maintained that Trujillo acted in self-defense, 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 today 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 said two 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."