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Houston woman sentenced to life in prison for killing boyfriend with stiletto heel

Ana Trujillo, accused of stabbing 59-year-old Alf Stefan Andersson in his Houston condominium at least 25 times, could be seen silently crying Friday when her sentence was handed down in last June's killing.

The Associated Press - Nydailynews.com

Friday, April 11, 2014

HOUSTON — A Houston woman was sentenced to life in prison Friday for fatally stabbing her boyfriend with the 5 1/2-inch stiletto heel of her shoe, striking him at least 25 times in the face and head.

Ana Trujillo was convicted of murder Tuesday by the same jury for killing 59-year-old Alf Stefan Andersson during an argument last June at his Houston condominium. Defense attorneys argued that Trujillo, 45, was defending herself from an attack by Andersson, who was a University of Houston professor and researcher.

Trujillo could be seen silently crying Friday when her sentence was handed down.

“I never meant to hurt him,” Trujillo said before the judge made the jury’s decision final. “It was never my intent. I loved him. I wanted to get away. I never wanted to kill him.”

During closing arguments in the trial’s punishment phase, prosecutor John Jordan asked jurors for the maximum sentence: life in prison. Jordan said Trujillo not only violently killed Andersson but tried to ruin his character during the trial by falsely claiming he had abused her.

“Send the message that in our community, when you beat a man to death for no reason, when you come into a courtroom and you slaughter his good name ... that we in Texas are going to hold you accountable,” Jordan said.

Trujillo’s attorney, Jack Carroll, asked jurors to find that his client acted in the heat of sudden passion, which would limit her sentence to between two and 20 years. Carroll asked jurors to give her a two-year sentence.

“Ms. Trujillo needs mercy right now,” he said. During Carroll’s closing argument, Trujillo began crying.

During their deliberations Friday, jurors asked to look at several pieces of evidence, including the blue suede stiletto heel — a size 9 platform pump. They reached agreement on a sentence after 4 1/2 hours of deliberations, and also found that the crime was not done in the heat of sudden passion.

Prosecutors argued Friday that Trujillo didn’t kill Andersson in a moment of sudden passion but that his slaying was a vicious murder in which she pinned him down and repeatedly stabbed him with her shoe while he never fought back.

Trujillo took the witness stand on Thursday, telling jurors that she was forced to kill Andersson to save her own life during a more than hourlong fight after being chased down, knocked into a wall and thrown over a couch.

During about seven hours of rambling testimony, she testified that she had no idea she had hurt Andersson so badly until she reached for him and realized her hands were full of blood.

Carroll maintained Friday that Trujillo killed Andersson in “pure self-defense” and that “she did what she had to.”

“The fact she took a stiletto to his face 25 times and then paraded around town like she’s the victim, that’s insulting,” prosecutor Sarah Mickelson said during closing arguments.

Trujillo also testified she had been repeatedly abused by men and sexually assaulted and that Andersson was a heavy drinker who would get angry with her.

Witnesses presented by prosecutors in the punishment phase detailed Trujillo’s criminal history or firsthand experiences in which she became violent toward them when she drank. Trujillo was arrested twice for drunk driving. She had been drinking the night of Andersson’s death but her blood alcohol level was not tested, according to testimony.

During the trial, prosecutors highlighted that Trujillo, a native of Mexico, 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 she had been injured.

Witnesses, including family and friends, said Andersson, a native of Sweden who became a U.S. citizen, had a drinking problem, but they described him as mild-mannered, quiet and never violent.

Jurors sentence stiletto killer to life in prison

By Brian Rogers - Chron.com

April 11, 2014

Prosecutor John Jordan climbed atop a courtroom table in front of a dozen wide-eyed jurors, straddled a mannequin torso and pantomimed hitting the dummy in the face with a high-heel stiletto.

It was the first time the jurors, who would eventually sentence Ana Trujillo to life in prison, could see for themselves how something so ordinary could be used in such a deadly way.

With TV cameras rolling on each of Jordan's swings, it was also the kind of drama that will become part of the lore that surrounds Houston's courthouse.

On Friday, the two-week trial that captured the city's attention and made headlines across the country ended with Trujillo, 45, being sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her boyfriend, Alf Stefan Andersson, last year.

"I never meant to kill him," Trujillo said after hearing the verdict. "It was self-defense. I never meant to hurt him."

Trujillo claimed throughout the trial that she was the victim in an abusive relationship and was defending herself from an attack with the only weapon she had: a cobalt blue platform pump with a 5-inch heel.

But the jury did not buy it.

Instead, they saw a woman with a violent history, a woman who often talked in circles during her testimony and who could not explain how she feared for her life the night she stabbed her boyfriend 25 times in the face and head.

That was just too many strikes for self-defense, said jury foreman Moin Khan.

"If you were to attack me, what would I do?" Khan said. "Maybe hit and then get out."

Andersson, a 59-year-old University of Houston professor and biochemist, died in the attack June 9. The couple had returned to Andersson's luxury high-rise apartment about 2 a.m. after drinking together all day.

During the guilt-or-innocence phase of the trial, jurors saw Trujillo give police a winding four-hour account of her past relationships. On the night she killed Andersson, Trujillo said, they got in a fight and he wrestled her to the floor and made it hard for her to breathe.

After she had been convicted, Trujillo took the stand in her defense and spent six hours re-telling the same meandering story, still glossing over the fight. Her attorney snapped at her several times to stay on point.

"Short, sweet and simple," defense lawyer Jack Carroll said. He signaled her with hand gestures when she wandered off topic.

Courthouse observers said Trujillo's aimless testimony hurt her more than it helped.

Trujillo had faced a punishment ranging from five years to life. Because she got the maximum, she will be eligible for parole in 30 years.

Violent past related

Prosecutors said it was an appropriate sentence for a woman whose violence has escalated over the past six years from slapping strangers to killing her boyfriend.

"She's not mentally unstable. She's crazy," Jordan told jurors during the prosecution's closing arguments. "Scary crazy. I don't dare try to get into what's going on in her mind."

Jordan and prosecutor Sarah Mickelson called 20 witnesses during the trial's punishment phase to testify about Trujillo's behavior, including biting an ex-boyfriend, drunkenly attacking a security guard, and a bizarre incident in which her neighbors arrived home to find her using the bathroom in their apartment.

Although Trujillo's violent behavior was what jurors heard about, what they kept seeing was the murder weapon, displayed on the table in front of the jury while most witnesses, including Trujillo, testified.

The left shoe was covered with blood and strands of Andersson's hair. Its mate, which was used in demonstrations, was spotless.

Although she said Andersson bought her a pair of $1,500 Christian Louboutin stiletto heels, the shoe Trujillo used in the slaying was from Qupid and cost less than $100. Inside that long thin heel was something much more menacing that could only be seen on an X-ray shown to jurors. The heel and sole, both made of steel, looked like an ice hammer with a crooked handle.

Bloody photos of Andersson's body at the crime scene showed the damage it could do.

The Houston police officer who was first to respond said he thought Andersson had been shot in the face.

After Trujillo was sentenced, her victim's niece, Ylva Olofsson, took the stand to give a victim impact statement for the family, most of whom were from Sweden.

"I'm 110 percent sure that he was never violent with Ana Trujillo," Olofsson said. She said she spoke with her uncle several times a week and that he was dating someone else, not trying to keep Trujillo from leaving. "He was not depressed, he was happy."

Shared grieving

After she praised her uncle as a generous and kind man, she spoke to Trujillo's family.

"I'm sorry for what you've had to go through," Olofsson said.

It was a gesture that seemed to pave the way for the two families, who sat next to each other in court for two weeks but never spoke, to finally meet.

After Trujillo had been taken out of the courtroom, her mother, step-father and aunt tearfully approached the victim's family and started talking to the group.

"I'm just sorry for the family of Stefan Andersson," Trujillo's mother said between sobs. "I'm truly sorry."

The two families, in tears in the courtroom, all hugged.

Houston woman convicted of killing boyfriend with stiletto heel testifies, acts out alleged fight for life

Ana Trujillo vividly gripped, shook and clenched her face while acting out how 59-year-old Alf Stefan Andersson allegedly attacked her in his Houston condominium and left her with no other choice but to use her shoe as a weapon.

By Nina Golgowski - New York Daily News

Thursday, April 10, 2014

It was a performance of a lifetime — meant to save her a lifetime behind bars.

The Houston woman convicted of stabbing to death her boyfriend with a 5 1/2-inch stiletto heel testified for the first time while physically reenacting the fight with her victim whom she claims "lost it."

Ana Trujillo vividly gripped, shook and clenched her face while acting out how 59-year-old Alf Stefan Andersson allegedly attacked her in his Houston condominium and left her with no other choice but to use her shoe as a weapon.

She plunged the spiked heel of her navy suede shoe, which Andersson reportedly bought for her, into his head and face at least 25 times after pinning him to the floor, prosecutors said.

"I became frightened. I did fear for my life. I felt he lost it," she said of her reasoning during Thursday's punishment phase of her trial.

"Why did you keep on hitting him?" her attorney Jack Carroll asked.

"He wouldn't let go of my leg. The pain wouldn't stop," she said.

The 45-year-old Mexican native went on to describe a turbulent life before Andersson's murder which was filled with repeat sexual and physical abuse by men.

In one instance, she said, a man punched her in the stomach while pregnant, causing a miscarriage.

In another she admitted to beating a male friend with a candlestick after he tried to rape her in his apartment.

That man testified on Wednesday, arguing the alleged 2009 attack was not provoked and resulted in him being knocked unconscious.

"She's all over the board," Jackie Swift, Andersson's ex-wife, told KHOU of Trujillo's five-hour emotional testimony. "It's so disjointed. It's just a bunch of ramblings."

Nineteen witnesses took the stand during the trial's punishment phase on Wednesday.

The majority of these witnesses testified of Trujillo's criminal history or first-hand experiences of dealing with her while she was drunk and violent.

"She's evil," said Swift. "It's unfortunate that the death penalty doesn't apply here because if anybody were ever a candidate for that it would be Ana Trujillo."

On the night of Andersson's death, Trujillo admitted that they both had been out drinking.

Once back at his Houston condominium Trujillo said Andersson chased her down, knocked her into a wall and threw her over a couch.

The decision to hit him in the head with the heel of her shoe, she said, was a last resort.

"I had no idea I was hurting him that badly," she defended. "I reached over and said, 'Oh God, what happened?' I reached over and my hands were full of blood."

Swift, defending her late ex-husband, said Trujillo's description of him being abusive couldn't be further from the truth.

"Stefan never was verbally, physically abusive to me," she told Inside Edition in tears. "If anything he instilled confidence in me and he uplifted me. He supported me in so many ways ... it wasn't in his nature to be demeaning."

Jurors on Wednesday also heard from Andersson's family and friends, who testified that he was a good person who wouldn't hesitate to help anyone and that they were still trying to understand his violent death.

Ana Trujillo guilty of killing boyfriend with stiletto heel shoe

Khou.com

April 8, 2014

HOUSTON - Jurors have convicted a Houston woman of stabbing her boyfriend to death with a 5½-inch stiletto.

Ana Trujillo showed no emotion when the verdict was read Tuesday. She mouthed the words "I love you" to her family as she was escorted out of the courtroom.

Prosecutors said Trujillo stabbed 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.

In final arguments, they called it a "vicious murder" committed in a fit of rage.

Trujillo’s attorneys said she was defending herself from an attack by Andersson, a UH professor and researcher.

Trujillo did not take the stand on her attorney’s advice.

The jury got deliberated only two hours before returning the verdict.

Defense attorney Jack Carroll said he was surprised.

"They didn’t ask any questions, they all seemed like they were in a good mood," Carroll said. "I thought it was in the bag. I was wrong."

"I would submit to you that when you find her guilty of murder, you’re not telling her anything she doesn’t already know," said Prosecutor Sarah Mickelson.

Jurors will be back on Wednesday to hear testimony in the sentencing phase.

Trujillo, 45, faces up to life in prison.

Testimony showed the victim bought the $1500 stilettos for Trujillo.

Confession video played in trial of accused stiletto killer

By Juan A. Lozano - Associated Press

April 2, 2014

HOUSTON - A Houston woman accused of fatally stabbing her boyfriend with her stiletto heel told detectives that her boyfriend had attacked her first and she didn't realize she had hurt him until she saw blood on the floor, according to a police interrogation video played for jurors on Wednesday.

Ana Trujillo is charged with murder in the death of 59-year-old Alf Stefan Andersson, a University of Houston professor and researcher. Authorities allege Trujillo sat on top of Andersson and struck him at least 25 times in the face and head with the shoe during an argument at his condominium last June. Trujillo's attorney has told jurors his client was defending herself.

On the third day of Trujillo's trial, prosecutors played a video recording of police detectives' interrogation of the 45-year-old woman that took place hours after the killing.

In the video, Trujillo told detectives that the couple returned to Andersson's condominium following a night of drinking and the two began arguing after Andersson said he was jealous that another man had bought her a drink that evening.

She told detectives she was just going to see her family in Waco the next day, but that Andersson became angry because he thought she was going to leave him.

"And his face got red ... and he became infuriated," Trujillo said. "And then he came toward me, (and said) 'You are not going to leave me, ever.'"

Trujillo said Andersson grabbed her and the two started wrestling in a hallway. She said she got away but Andersson chased her down and got on top of her, preventing her from breathing. She said Andersson was growling at her.

"I was begging him to let me go," she said.

Trujillo told detectives Andersson then lost his balance and she was able to get on top of him.

"He grabbed me. I was hitting him with the shoe, telling him, 'Please stop,'" she said.

Trujillo said she hit Andersson because she knew "he was going to get up and he was going to hurt me."

Trujillo said she hit Andersson "a couple of times" and then he grabbed her hand and she lost the shoe.

"At first I didn't know there was blood coming out of him," she said. "He didn't even seem like he was hurt."

Earlier in the video, Trujillo told detectives Andersson would drink heavily and was mentally abusive. She said Andersson had been like many male friends she had who wanted to "marry me" and turn their friendship into romance. Trujillo said she eventually grew to care for Andersson but resisted having sex with him because it was like "sleeping with my grandfather."

She told detectives Andersson would do well for a while but then would relapse into self-destructive behavior.

"It got too much for me," she said.

The trial is expected to last at least a week. If convicted, Trujillo faces up to life in prison.

Stiletto heel allegedly used in Houston stabbing death shown in court

The stained navy suede shoe featuring a slender 5 1/2-inch heel was presented before a Houston courtroom Tuesday. Ana Trujillo is accused of using the footwear to slash Alf Stefan Andersson at least 25 times in the face in June.

By Nina Golgowski - New York Daily News

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

The deadly stiletto heel prosecutors say a Texas woman used to fatally stab her boyfriend after a night of drinking last June has been pictured for the first time.

The stained navy suede shoe featuring a slender 5 1/2-inch heel was presented before a Houston courtroom Tuesday where Ana Trujillo is accused of using it to slash Alf Stefan Andersson at least 25 times in the face.

Trujillo's attorneys have maintained that she struck Andersson, a 59-year-old University of Houston professor and researcher, in self-defense.

But her sincerity was questioned by a Houston police officer who was one of the first to meet her the night of the grisly June 9 killing.

Officer Ashton Bowie testified Tuesday that when he greeted Trujillo at the door of Andersson's apartment, she appeared to be crying "crocodile tears" and that her face was curiously dry.

"She was sobbing but no actual tears were coming down her face," he said, according to the Associated Press.

In contrast, Trujillo's frantic 911 call played before the court depicted the 45-year-old as sobbing profusely on the line.

"He started beating me up and I couldn't get away," she's heard in the recording, according to KHOU.

Bowie said he questioned whether her cries were real and said that there was so much blood that he thought the victim had been shot in the head.

"I thought his head had been blown out by a gun," he told jurors.

While the recording was played in court, Trujillo visibly cried with a tissue to her eyes.

Houston woman on trial for stabbing boyfriend to death with stiletto heel 25 times

The gruesome attack on the night of June 9, 2013 left Ana Trujillo's boyfriend, Alf Stefan Andersson, lying mangled on the floor of his Houston apartment after struck at least 25 times by her shoe, according to prosecutors.

By Nina Golgowski - New York Daily News

Monday, March 31, 2014

A Texas court has heard how a woman accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death with a stiletto heel was seen "not in her right mind" moments before the attack she claims was in self-defense.

The gruesome attack on the night of June 9, 2013 left Ana Trujillo's boyfriend, Alf Stefan Andersson, lying mangled on the floor of his Houston apartment after struck at least 25 times, according to prosecutors.

Trujillo's attorney defended that the 45-year-old Mexican native was protecting herself after Andersson, a University of Houston professor and researcher from Sweden, tried to suffocate her.

Cab driver Rosemary Gomez, who was one of the last to see Andersson, 59, alive, told the court Monday that Trujillo's behavior left her fearing for his life moments before dropping them off at his apartment from a bar.

"'You need to be careful. Your friend is not in her right mind,'" she recalled telling him that night, according to KHOU.

Gomez described Trujillo as appearing drunk, cursing and acting belligerently toward Andersson while riding in the backseat.

"He got my hand and squeezed it and said, 'I'll be OK,'" Gomez said.

But Andersson clearly was not.

When police arrived at his door they came face-to-face with Trujillo covered in blood and Andersson lying in a similar pool behind her.

"The one thing we can be sure of in this case is that Ana Trujillo is not a victim. Ana Trujillo struck Stefan Andersson 25 times with the heel of her shoe while he lay on the floor and bled out," said prosecutor Sarah Mickelson, according to the Associated Press.

Defense attorneys painted an entirely different picture.

The on-and-off again couple returned to his apartment but Trujillo wanted to leave, they said.

Andersson allegedly wanted nothing of it and instead slammed her against a wall and threw her over a couch.

"She couldn't breathe. And she was begging and begging (Andersson) to let her go," said defense attorney John Carroll. "He started suffocating her. ... She did the only thing she could do, take a weapon at her disposal, which was a shoe, and started hitting him."

Testimony is scheduled to resume on Tuesday with the trial expected to last a week.

Trujillo is currently free on $100,000 bond.