45 years in prison for Elizabeth Muoz, convicted in 2014 killing of boyfriend
A jury Wednesday convicted the woman accused of stabbing and killing her boyfriend with a tattoo needle guilty of murder, and hours later sentenced her to 45 years in prison.
Closing arguments started and ended Wednesday morning in the murder trial of Elizabeth Muñoz, on trial for the March 2014 killing of Raul Robles. The woman allegedly admitted to police she killed Robles because he wanted to shoot her in the stomach to kill her baby. Muñoz was five months pregnant at the time.
During closing arguments, state prosecutors told the jury, “He (Robles) was stabbed four times. That’s cold blooded. That is intimate. That is somebody that is so angry at Raul that she (pointing at Muñoz) is going to get up close and personal and stab him in the neck.”
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The defense argued there were too many reasonable doubts for the jury to consider. For example, the distance from where the stabbing happened to where some of the witnesses were was too far, and there were too many things in the way to clearly see what happened.
The defense also argued the state’s two “star witnesses” were convicted felons and only protecting themselves.
Jimmy Trejo and Virginia Rubio were at the scene when the stabbing occurred. The defense argued Trejo is a former Azteca member, who admitted in the courtroom that he has killed someone before. The defense further argued he could have killed Robles and Rubio is covering up for him.
Monday, Trejo and Rubio told the Jury they met Muñoz on March 1, 2014 after she called and said she got into an argument with Robles. Upon arrival, Rubio said Trejo got out of the car and walked up to Muñoz and Robles. Another argument ensued and Rubio said Trejo punched Robles, knocking him out.
As the group was leaving, Rubio said, Muñoz walked to her car, then back to the spot in the groud where Robles was lying. Rubio said she overheard Muñoz saying, “This is not going to stay like this.” Rubio and Trejo said Muñoz admitted to stabbing Robles in the neck. Rubio said Muñoz also asked Trejo to punch her and take her to the hospital to make it look like self defense.
During an interview with detectives a day after the stabbing, Munoz told them, “He was going to use a gun to shoot me in the stomach so the baby wouldn’t survive. So I decided to stab Raul, I told the detective that I used a tool that Raul uses to tattoo.I walked up to Raul and said ‘babe why’ and stabbed him two times.”
ABC-7 archives show that in 2007, Muñoz was found guilty of killing her common-law husband by stabbing him with a knife. She pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to five years in prison in that case.
